Brothers Under The Sun
by Audinale55
Summary: Four old men, veterans from WWII, go to Washington D.C. looking for the final member of their old troop. Little do they know they've stumbled upon the most well-kept secret in the modern world. OCs, US/UK
1. Chapter 1

Hey, and welcome to my first hetalia fic posted on this site! I have posted hetalia fics previously, but not here. This... is an OC fic, but it does contain America. And America/England, so if you don't like that pairing, I would turn the other way. This is a fic about brotherhood, and a good outside POV of the Nations and their eccentricity. So... please be kind, and r and r. There is actually 26 plus pages of this written on my computer, so... There will be semi-regular updates.

**Disclaimer: **I do not own Hetalia. I do own my boys, so don't steal them!

* * *

><p>"I can't believe we're doing this," an old man said plaintively as he and three others climbed up the stairs of the District of Columbia Center for Planning, Health and Epidemology, 825 North Capitol Street.<p>

"Oh, shut up, Jack. You want to see Alfred again, don't you?" Nicolas Harrison snapped, five steps ahead of everybody else, even with his bad heart.

"We're all getting way too old for this," Jack Reeds said, feeling his knees protest the steps. "You think they would have a ramp, or an elevator or something!"

"I, for one, think this is an adventure! Come on, get into the spirit of things. Better than sitting around watching re-runs of _All in the Family_," Alexander Evans said, looking over at Nick. "Unlike some man I know would probably be doing right now."

"Oh, shut the hell up." They finally all made it up the steps and tried to look presentable.

"Now come on, you three," Theodore Wilson, the final men of the four, said. He tried to look fearsome and inspire some amount of control into three stubborn old men. He knew that he failed, but somebody had to _try_ to keep them in line "We're respected veterans of World War II searching for records of the last man of our company. _Try_ to act serious."

All three of them just looked at him, and then started to laugh. "Respected veterans, my ass!" Nick said. "We're all complete goofs, and you know it, Theo."

Theo sighed, and turned to walk into the building. "What are you, your ages or your shoe sizes?"

"Definitely our shoe sizes. I don't want to be my age," Nick said, shuffling after him. "My age is officially when anybody younger than twenty stops listening to you."

"I like to think that you're as old as you feel. If you let yourself feel old, then you've let old age win," Alex said. One could just _hear_ the quotes around his sentence.

Jack glared at him, bending down to rub his knees, which were still aching from the climb up. "Tell that to my damn knees."

"Sadly, I can't bend down that far to tell them without throwing my back out. You're just going to have to live with disappointment."

"Alex, stop taunting Jack," Theo said, because obviously he had to be the referee around here.

"And stop being philosophical," Nick complained. "You're making my head hurt."

"At my age, being philosophical isn't just a job anymore, it's a _hobby_. You should try it, Nick. Everybody believes what you say has some deeper meaning. Even if you say 'You are a complete and utter asshole.'"

"Please, you three… remember what I said. We are _respected_ veterans!" Theo repeated, knowing that all three of them were quite possible making faces behind him as he walked up to the secretary behind the desk. Not possibly, they were. He could see them in the reflection of the door. Oh dear god, could he pretend he didn't know them?

The woman behind the desk was smiling at him with a forced smile and he knew she would rather be rid of him. Probably though him to be some senile, sentimental old man she was going to have to deal with. He may be a bit sentimental, but he was _not_ senile.

"Hello, Miss. My name is Theodore Wilson. I was wondering if you could possibly look up a birth certificate for me. See, he was part of our company…" He glanced back and gestured at the other three, who waved at her with their best angelic grins on their faced. Theo sighed. "In World War II. We would like to get in touch with him, and his last known address was somewhere in Washington D.C."

"It may be possible," the girl said, popping her gum. He could imagine Alex twitching behind him at that. "We don't exactly give out information, though, just to anybody. You're going to have to fill out some forms," she said, shuffling some papers. Theo nodded because he really hadn't expected anything less.

"I expected as much. Only, we're not sure about anything other than his name and his physical appearance." The woman looked up quizzically. "He never told us much about himself."

"Then, give me his name. Perhaps I could look him up easily on the computer," she said, swiveling in her chair, fingers poised over her keyboard.

"Alfred F. Jones." She nodded, fingers flying over the keys, and then pressed 'enter'. Theo couldn't help but pray, and realized that Nick, Jack and Alex had shuffled up behind him, crowding around that desk in the little hope that they would find their missing member.

The woman blinked at the screen, fingers still poised on the keys that they had rested upon. "Well?" Theo asked impatiently.

"Mr. Wilson…I-I'm going to have to ask that you and your friends leave the premises." The woman had stopped snapping her gum, and she actually looked…a bit terrified.

"What?" Nick said, leaning over the desk. "We just asked you to locate our friend, and then you tell us to leave. What the hell is wrong with that?"

"Sir, I kindly regret to inform you that Alfred F. Jones doesn't exist. Don't enquire further." She shuffled some papers, and Theo took it for what it was. A dismissal. They were being refused.

"How can somebody not exist? Especially somebody that I knew, that I shared a bunk with and crawled in the mud with and bled with and shot German troops with!" Nick cried. Theo grabbed his shoulder.

"Nick, don't get worked up! Your heart!"

"To hell with my goddamned heart!" Theo looked over at Alex, who came up and grabbed his other arm, and together they escorted Nick out before he did something he'd regret later, or worse, hurt himself. Jack hovered anxiously after.

The woman watched them go and then, unknown to the four of them picked up her phone, and dialed. She spoke in a quiet, efficient voice into the speaker, all snapping of gum forgotten. "Can I please be connected to the White House Secret Service staff?"

* * *

><p>America, known as Alfred F. Jones, was currently playing his DS in his office. He jerked to the left, as if that'd help him win his game. Until a loud noise of agony emanated from it. "Oh, c'mon! That's bullshit! I wasn't anywhere <em>near<em> the water!"

He switched it off, disgusted with it, and flung it onto his desk. It made a soft 'whump' as it hit the piles of paper there. Oh shit, he should probably do his paperwork, shouldn't he? If he didn't his boss would get that disapproving face and he would _never_ get his vacation.

Absentmindedly he ran his thumb over the smooth band on his ring finger, adorned plainly with Old English. Arthur would never forgive him (okay, he would, but he'd be very huffy and English for the better part of a day) if he missed any of their yearly vacation.

He was just about to start in on it-he had his pen ready and everything-when there was a knock on the door. America sighed, and threw his pen back onto the desk. "Come in!" A Secret Serviceman walked in, and it was one of the newer ones, he could tell, not from what he looked like, but how he held himself. It was like he was about to talk to God or something. The older ones had already gotten over their awe, and usually approached him with a lot less tension.

"Mr. Jones, sir, we were called by a secretary at the Center for Planning, Health and Epidemology earlier this morning to inform us that four men had enquired after you that morning. She gave us one of the names, and from the information provided, we were able to pull their personal information from the FBI." He slid a manila folder onto the desk and America took it warily, flicking it open.

His breath caught in his throat and he closed it quickly again. He cleared his throat. "All right, fine. I'll look over it. You're dismissed."

"But sir, what should we do in the meantime?"

"Watch them. Get the FBI to tail them. Just _don't hurt them,_" he growled, and poured a bit of his power into those words. "Now get out." The agent's eyes went wide and a bit blank as he practically stumbled over himself trying to get out.

America sighed, steeled himself, and opened the folder again.

* * *

><p>Private Alfred F. Jones, <em>his dog tags read. America kept looking at them, wondering if the man that had handed them to him knew he couldn't die. Or that he was General of the Armies of the United States . Or that he had more medals on his dress uniforms than most people saw in their entire lives. Of course, the number depended on if it was Navy, Army or the Air Force.<em>

_He flopped down on his bunk, eyeing the other four places. Five to a tent? Really now? Hopefully they wouldn't be terrible. He loved his citizens, truly he did, but some of them could be just plain _insane_. That also made four people he had to keep his secret from. According to the briefing he was given, they were being transferred to this ramshackle place on the outskirts of the fighting, because his government evidentially thought that he couldn't handle himself in a fight. Or just wanted to try to humor him but do damage control at the exact same time. It made him sigh and want to bash his head against a wall._

_Of course, it was only a temporary thing. America always made it a point to serve during every war, but he was also needed elsewhere. A six to ten month tour for him, then back to his capital to join his boss._

_There was a loud noise outside the tent, and America sat up, watching the flap as a 17 year old boy, tall, with dark black hair backed into the tent, laughing. "You can't do that to me! I'm Nicholas Harrison, womanizer extraordinaire! I don't just 'settle down'. I love 'em and then leave 'em happy they loved me!" He turned, and saw America._

"_Oh, you're our new bunkmate. …Kind of a Golden Boy, aren't you?" he asked, looking him up and down. America laughed, blushing slightly and rubbing at the back of his head._

"_I have heard that before."_

"_Don't mind him," said another person, poking his head in. He had brown hair and a nice smile. "He's harmless. I'm Theodore Wilson. Theo for short. Nice to meet you. This is Nick Harrison, if you didn't get that," Theo said, elbowing him. Nick rolled his eyes._

"_He's the responsible one," he said in a stage whisper. Theo just rolled his eyes and went over to one of the beds._

"_I get the one with the bookshelf!" Another man ran in, 17 years old, blond, and considerably shorter. "I'm Alexander Evans. When I get home from the war I'm going to university to become a philosopher," Alex informed him, and then threw himself across the bed nearest to the crude storage shelves._

_The final one to come in was slightly behind the rest, and he was average height and looked a tad bit mousy. It was probably the generic brown hair and brown eyes and the air of fear he carried over him._

"_I'm Jack Reeds. I suppose I'll have the last bed." He said it with such long suffering that America was instantly reminded of Mattie. He then realized he hadn't introduced himself._

"_Oh, I'm Alfred F. Jones, Hero!" he said, throwing a hand up in the air. They all stared at him. "What? I am a hero."_

"…_All right then," Nick said, staring at him with amusement._

"…_What does the F stand for?" Alex asked, looking up from his duffel bag where it looked like he had snuck books in._

_America regarded them blankly. "Honestly… I have no idea."_

"_You are weird," Nick said. Theo hit him. "Owww, Theo!"_

_America laughed. "Yeah, but trust me, it's the good kind of weird."_

* * *

><p>Notes: Okay, just so you are aware, General of the Armies is an actual post. It's now known as being a six star general, and the only men to ever have that rank were General Pershing from WWI, and George Washington, granted to him at the bicentennial celebration. I have a feeling that America would be the third person.<em><br>_


	2. Chapter 2

Okay, here's the next chapter for all of you. I should also probably mention that the title is taken from the Bryan Adams song 'Brothers Under the Sun', on the soundtrack of Spirit: Stallion of the Cimmaron. It's a very pretty song.

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Hetalia, but I do own my boys.

* * *

><p>"So is this good kind of weird or bad kind of weird?" Jack finally asked, as they managed to sit down on a bench in a park nearby. Nick was still fuming.<p>

"I'm going to say this is bad…very bad. Basically, the government is saying that Alfred doesn't exist," Alex said. "When we all know he existed."

"Unless that's code for…" Theo started off quietly, but Nick raised a hand.

"Don't. Don't _even_ say it. Alfred is _not_ dead. There is something going on here."

"Alfred was always kind of mysterious. Who doesn't know what their middle initial stands for?" Jack grumbled.

"Unless he had some terrible secret, and he lied about it to us," Alex said.

Nick immediately jumped to his defense. "He didn't _lie_-"

"Not telling us something about your identity knowingly is still a lie. It's a lie of omission," Alex snapped back, and the four of them fell silent. They were quiet for a while.

Jack was the first to speak. "So, are we going back home?"

"No!" Nick said, standing up. "Do you think _any_ of us are going to give up? We're going to get to the bottom of this."

"It will certainly be interesting…" Alex murmured. "It would give us something to do, too." And they all looked at Theo.

"Of course we're still going to find Alfred. Why wouldn't we?" he said, smiling at all of them. "But where do we start first?"

* * *

><p>America realized that it was almost 8 at night, and that by now he was on his way home, but not today. His bomber jacket was slung over the back of his chair and he was pacing around reading the files brought to him earlier today. He <em>had<em> been sitting down, but then he just had to get up and move around.

He jumped when his phone started playing Neutron Star Collision (he liked Muse, and used the ringtone for England because they were a British band) but answered it. "Artie~"

_Hello, lovely. You didn't call me today. _ America could hear the slight hurt in his voice.

"Sorry, babe, something came up and it's had me in a mood all day." He flopped into his chair, dropping the file on his messy desk.

_What's the matter, Alfred? It's not like you to forget to call me._ He sounded concerned now. America wished he could see his face.

He traced the edge of the file. "Back in the war, I made friends with these four guys I was sharing a tent with when I did my tour of duty. I left them after the tour was over, and I thought they'd forget about me." He cut his finger, and pulled it back to watch the blood bead over the cut. He then watched, since it had nothing to do with his country, scab over and heal itself in less than a minute.

…_But they didn't, did they._

"No. They asked after me this morning, and the Secret Service is in a tizzy about it. As usual."

_Easy, then. Ignore it. You can't possibly tell them the truth, Alfred. You know the rules._

"Who even made those rules?" he asked distantly.

_America…you can't. It's for your own safety as much as theirs and you know it. You need to drop it, love._

"I can't stop thinking about them, Arthur. They're here. That's why I didn't tell them where to find me or haven't gotten in touch with them. I want to tell them and… it's too much temptation."

_Darling… Stay strong. I know…_ He paused and America could hear him take a deep breath. _I know how you feel, but you can't tell them. It's dangerous._

"They wouldn't do anything to me. And anyway, we tell the people in our government…some of them at least."

_That's different, Alfred. They've sworn an oath to us. They _can't_ tell. These four haven't done anything._

"They wouldn't hurt me, Arthur. I know you're worried about me, but…" America took a deep breath himself and slid down in his chair. "I'll forget about it, Artie. Just for you."

_Thank you, love._

* * *

><p>The next morning the four of them got up and out of their hotel room after a rather futile day one. Jack was still complaining of his knees, Nick was still grumpy as hell and Alex was quoting philosophical quotes at them all. Theo sighed. It was indeed a normal day, except that they had a mission to accomplish.<p>

"So, yesterday was a bit of a waste of time," Theo said.

"You suggested we walk around DC and look for him," Nick grumbled, crossing his arms. "It didn't work."

"Well, it might help if we knew what he looked like," Alex said cheerfully. Unlike Nick of Jack, who was trying to sleep while walking, Alex was a bit of a morning person.

"But we…don't," Nick pointed out. "And now all we're doing is walking around on the Mall."

"It's a start. If we don't start somewhere, then we're not going to do _anything_," Theo said.

Alex decided now was the time for a speech. "Do not worry, gentleman! We are men of providence, and therefore, providence will provide for us and give us a lead to where our missing fifth member might be!" Nick snorted.

"Yeah, okay, Alex. You keep telling yourself that."

"Must you always ruin my fun, Nick?"

"Excuse me!" A boy appeared next to them, no more than nineteen, holding a stuffed bear. "Might you know which way Pennsylvania Avenue is? I always get terribly lost in Washington D.C." They all traded looks with each other, and even Jack woke up for this. Because from the wire frame glasses and the hair and the deep blue, almost purple eyes…he looked like Alfred had almost 70 years ago.

"It's that way," Theo pointed. "But…may we ask you something?"

"…What?" the boy looked wary, and backed up a step.

"Do you know somebody named Alfred F. Jones?" Nick said, leaning in interestedly.

"Yeeeee…No. No, I don't. I've never heard that name before in my life. It's not like he's my brother or anything." And with that, he turned and walked quickly away, leaving the four of them standing there.

"…Follow him." They caught up with him halfway down the street and that's when he ran, dodging around people and cars like he wasn't a person-more like he was air than anything.

"L-leave me alone!" he shouted back, running and disappearing around the corner. They ran after him, but had to stop halfway down Pennsylvania Avenue. Jack sat down, rubbing his knees, and Nick next to him, breathing heavily and dry-swallowing some aspirin.

"…Wow. Look at that." Alex said. Theo looked up at him and through the wrought iron fence to see the White House.

"Yeah, we're not here to sight see Alex," Nick said, resting his head on Jack's shoulder. Jack had fallen asleep again. "We're here to figure out where Alfred is. And that kid…"

"He looked like Alfred…" Alex said, considering. "Do you think he meant it?"

"What?" Theo asked, sitting down next to Nick.

"That he was his brother. That was too specific to not be true." Nick laughed at that.

"Alexander Evans, don't be stupid. That was over 60 years ago! If anything, the kid's his grandson."

"Yeah, that is kind of silly. Stuff like that doesn't happen."

"So…we have a lead," Theo said finally. Alex smirked.

"Told you providence would help us out."

* * *

><p>"Al!" Canada slammed into his office, throwing the door closed behind him. America was sipping at a soda, trying to sort out his triplicate files.<p>

"Hey, Mattie! I didn't know you were visit-"

"These four old guys were at the Mall asking about you." America spit his soda out over his files.

"What? What did you tell them?" He got up and went over, seizing his brother's shoulders. "What?"

"You know how I am when I panic! I can't remember, but I think I might have said something incriminating, because they chased after me! I lost them on Pennsylvania Avenue, but…" He dropped Kuma and flailed about. "What do we _do_, Al?"

_Forget about it, forget about it,_ the voice in his head that sounded remarkably like England said. But the temptation was a bit too great, not when they were right outside.

"You're going to show me them, Mattie," he said with that nice smile that he knew terrified Canada into doing anything.

* * *

><p>"So, now what?" Theo asked five minutes later, after they'd all sat on the bench to catch their breath. Nick stood up.<p>

"Well, we have to find that kid again! Even though we don't…know his name…"

"This is going to be difficult," Alex said. Jack yawned, nodding awake.

"So, what did I miss?" he asked. Nick glared at him and he stuck his tongue out. A branch snapped in the tree near them. They all looked over but it didn't happen again.

"Huh. Must be a squirrel."

"_Pardonné moi, monsiuers_. I am looking for a boy about yea high, with a bear that he takes with him everywhere, and wire frame glasses. Have you seen him, by any chance?" A man said, hair falling about his face in waves with a smirk and bright blue eyes. He had that French air about him, in addition to speaking French, and his clothes were perfectly immaculate.

Meanwhile, in the tree… Canada coughed. "Did I mention that I was here with France?" America smacked him.

"Ah…yeah, we just saw him." Nick changed his tone of voice to soft and wheedling. "But we lost which way he was going."

"Ah…_Mathieu_, why must you always run off?" he said with a dramatic sigh before wandering off in the opposite direction.

"Ah, wait a minute!" Alex said, running over to him. "Might you know who Alfred F. Jones is?"

"Why…yes. But what business of it is yours? Asking after him in this city of all places is liable to get you arrested or worse."

Up in the tree… "Oh, fuck no. France, you did _not_ just say that."

"Well, all we want to know is where he is. We wanted to see him again." The man laughed, a high pitched, tinkling laughter that set their nerves on edge.

"Oh, but _monsieurs,_ that is impossible. You would do best to forget about him and all that is happened today. It is not your place to know."

"France, shut the fuck up. Mattie, why isn't he just walking away?"

"What do you _mean_, 'not our place'? Where the hell do you get off?" Nick said, finally getting mad. Theo put a restraining hand on his shoulder.

"You humans think you know and deserve every-" A gunshot rang around the street as the bullet imbedded itself in the concrete at the French man's feet. The four of them stared and the French man looked up at the tree, smirking slightly before bowing.

"Then it is your problem_._ Deal with it as you like. _Bon chance, monsieurs." _And he swaggered off in the other direction and this time he did not look back.

Up in the tree America was still holding out his gun, balancing on a tree branch. Canada crouched beside him. "You know, Al, you really shouldn't lose your temper like that." America didn't answer, he just slid his gun back into its holster.

"Um, Theo, was it my imagination or did he just call us…_humans_?" Alex said, staring after where the man had disappeared, eyes wide.

"I heard it too," Jack said, walking over to them. "And that gunshot did come from the tree." But when they went over there to look up at the boughs, there was nothing there.


	3. Chapter 3

Welcome back to the fic for chapter three! This one is where the status quo starts to change for my boys and for America himself. I didn't exactly come outright and _say_ what happened, but most people should be able to figure it out. The endnotes will help if you're confused.

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Hetalia, but I own my boys.

* * *

><p>Canada had left, looking for France and America called up England, because he hadn't yet today and he needed to talk to somebody.<p>

_Darling, how are you today?_

"I saw them, Arthur. Mattie accidentally asked them for directions and they followed him here."

…_Who?_ America sighed in frustration.

"Canada! Mattie! My brother!"

_Oh, yes._

"And I gave into temptation and we hid in a tree outside to watch them. But it was a good thing I did, because France was also looking for Mattie and talked to them. You know how he is. He was being all smug and I know something you don't know. I actually had to shoot at him to get him to shut up!"

…_Oh, he is dead at the next EU meeting. I shall beat him until security pulls me off of him._

America laughed. "Thanks, babe~ But now I have a worse problem."

_Hm?_

"They know that something strange is going on. France called them 'humans'," he said quietly, sliding into his chair.

_Does that stupid frog have any self-preservation? Bastard!_

"Arthur, it's okay. The thing I'm most upset about is that I _did_ see them. They're old now. Ancient, even. How can I even think about showing myself to them now? At least they had good, long lives." And he knew that was his doing, because all the humans he really, truly cared about lived long. As long as nobody killed them.

_Darling…_

"I mean… This is the whole reason why Nations shouldn't know humans outside of their government. What was I even thinking when I made friends with them? I wasn't, that's it. …You can tell me 'I told you so', Artie. I won't complain."

_Lovely, it's not your fault. Contrary to popular belief, Nations do make friends outside of governmental positions. It's just, Alfred, you always inspire loyalty in people. Most people do not come after Nations after the friendship is over. Yours did._ America heaved a sigh, depressed. _Alfred, come here. Take your vacation early. It will get you out of all that. You need to relax. Anyway, the UN meeting is in a few days at The Hague. You might as well come early. I'll meet you there. _

"…Okay, okay, babe. I will." And he mentally made himself a note to call for a ticket on the next flight to The Hague. At least because he wasn't going to London his boss wouldn't be suspicious.

* * *

><p>Theo twitched awake the next morning, yawning. After their encounter with <em>Mathieu<em> and the Frenchman, they had searched the rest of the Mall and around the White House, but they had found nothing. Finally they had gone back to their hotel room and fallen asleep. Theo actually had never felt so rested, these hotel beds must be doing wonders for his back.

Though, why was their glitter on his bed? Theo rolled his eyes. He wouldn't put it past Nick or Jack to decide that glitter on his bed would be funny. He got up, yawning again and stretching, heading for the bathroom. Man did he feel good…

He figured out exactly why a minute later in the mirror. He gave a loud yell and flung himself out of the bathroom, falling flat on his face. "What, what?" Nick shouted, waking up.

"Whoa…" Jack said, looking at Nick and then at Theo, and then kicked Alex awake. Alex flailed and fell out of bed.

"Ow, what the hell, Jack? What if I had broken…a…" Nick, Jack and Theo went over to look down at him. "Uh…never mind."

"So…" Theo said, age 19. "This is weird."

"No, this is _amazing_!_" _ Nick shouted, flinging himself back upon his bed. Jack was jumping up and down on his bed, yelling something about his knees.

Nick grabbed his aspirin bottle, looked at it, and threw it out the open window.

"…Did we leave that window open?" Alex asked. Jack stopped bouncing and Theo wandered over to look at the sill, where glitter adorned it.

"There was glitter in my bed too…" he trailed off.

"Mine too…" Jack said, showing where glitter had coated his feet. Nick got up off of his bed, walking into the sunlight to show off his glitter.

"Uh…Nick… Your shadow."

"Hm?" He looked back at his shadow, which didn't match his body anymore. It was his old body. Theo looked behind him too, and sure enough, his was too.

"Okay. I think this might be some sort of magic," Jack said. Alex snorted.

"There is no such thing as magic!" Alex said. "That's preposterous. Magic can't be explained by science."

"I don't know, Alex…" Nick was still staring at his shadow, almost in morbid fascination.

"That man yesterday, he called us humans. And you _heard_ him, Alex," Theo said, arguing. "I'm not saying its _fairies_, but something really weird is going on. And that's an understatement."

"He and that boy were also uncommonly beautiful…" Jack said, drifting off. "…So was Alfred. Like…elves or something."

"He always got what he wanted, too," Nick said. "He just smiled or spoke to someone, and they did it. Lucky bastard."

"…You guys are lunatics," Alex said, rolling his eyes. "I, for one, am not going to question this."

"And I say we go on a shopping spree with my hard-earned fortune, get some new clothes, and then resume our search," Nick said, wrinkling his nose at his clothes. "I need to be fashionable at all times, and fairies or no fairies, this is it."

"At least you're semi-sensible," Alex said. Jack rolled his eyes at the non-believer and started brushing glitter off himself.

* * *

><p>America went into his office the next day, intent on sweeping all his papers into his desk drawers and running as fast as he possibly could to the airport. Until he saw the glitter monstrosity on his desk. He cautiously poked it and wiped the glitter on his finger off on his desk. He figured that France probably did it to get back at him for yesterday. But, he would have covered everything in glitter, not just the note.<p>

The note which read in scrolling script: '_It has been done, lover of my sacred country.'_

America took a picture of it with his phone, and sent it to England, titling it with 'WHY?'

Then, he decided to fuck the paperwork, grabbed his bags he left at the door and practically ran full tilt to the airport, because he decided that he actually _really_ did not want to know.

* * *

><p>The four men wandered out of the high-end clothing store, wearing their purchases. Nick had suggested this store, and Nick had paid for it all, since he was practically rich.<p>

"Don't you think this is… a bit too much, Nick?" Theo asked. Nick laughed.

"It's never too much when you're back in action after so many years," he said, whistling after a girl. Alex smacked him. "Hey!"

"You're old enough to be their grandfathers," he hissed.

"So? They don't need to know that."

"So!" Theo said, getting them once again back on track. "Where shall we look first?"

"Hm…I don't know… Back to around the White House, I guess?" Alex said.

"The Hague."

"What?" the three of them asked simultaneously, all turning to look at Jack. He held up a note covered in glitter.

"It was in my pocket. It says: '_The Hague is where the one you search for shall be in a two days' time.'_ It was fairies, in my honest opinion," Jack said, nodding. Nick smacked him and took the note.

"Fairies, Jack? You are so crazy. It's obviously…uh…" he looked at the note. "Something, but not fairies!"

"Fairies," Jack said again, insistent. This time he pulled out his cell phone and started dialing. "Hi, um, when's the next flight to The Hague?" Alex sighed, his head in his hands. Obviously he didn't believe the entire fairy excuse. Jack was always the superstition one of the bunch. Theo, though, was inclined to agree. Too many strange things had happened.

"…In an hour? Can we have four tickets? …Thank you." He hung up. "Our flight's leaving in an hour."

"I am not getting on a flight to the Hague!" Alex shouted, finally losing his cool. "There is no such thing as fairies, and why the _hell_ would Alfred be in The Hague anyway?"

An hour later… "I hate you people, I really do," Alex said from his seat.

"Calm down, Alex. It'll be fun!" Theo said, trying to get him to look on the bright side of things.

"All that old architecture!" Nick trilled happily, smiling like a mad man.

"See, Nick's happy," Theo pointed out. Alex gave him a flat stare.

"Because he's an architect and a freak."

"Don't worry. The fairies said that Alfred will be there, so he'll be there," Jack said, stretching out. "Wake me when we get there." Alex sighed and buried himself in a book while the airplane started to taxi out of Washington National.

Meanwhile, in first class, America had put in his iPod and watched out the window, counting the minutes until he could see England again.

* * *

><p>"<em>So… Your turn, Alfred! Truth or dare," Nick asked, smirking. <em>

_America blinked, looked over at Jack, who was still covered with mud, and hastily said, "Truth."_

"_What is that ring on your finger?"_

"_Oh, this? 'S my wedding ring." The shout of 'You're _married?' _was deafening. "Yell a little louder guys, I don't think they heard you in _Berlin!"

"_So, who's the lucky girl?" Theo asked, smiling._

"_And what the hell does it say?" Jack said, peering over it._

"_What is this, twenty questions? Anyway, the erm…girl is British. I met her…a while ago, before the war." Waaaaaay before the war. He actually wondered how England was faring right now without him. He absently stroked the band with his thumb, feeling the engraved Old English across his finger._

"_I'm sure she's fine. And after the war is over, you can go see her!" Theo said._

"_So now…is that some sort of ancient language?" Alex said, more interested in the writing on the band than anything._

"_It's Old English. She's very traditional."_

"_What does it say?" Jack asked, poking him in the shoulder. America waved him off._

"_That's none of your business," he told them. In all reality it said, '_America, you stupid brat, I love you and will forever'. _Much less impressive in English, but so England that it made America lose his breath for a moment. Not at all sappy, like his was, that right now rested on England's ring finger._

"_So…is she good in bed?" Nick asked quietly, nudging him in the ribs. America smirked._

"_You… have no _idea_." Nick snickered._

"_Well, better you than me with the ball and chain."_

"'_S not a ball and chain. I love hi-her."_

"_Got any pictures?" Nick asked slyly. America smacked him hard._

"_No. So quit asking." They all looked at each other and Jack, Nick and Alex got identical smirks on their faces. Theo got that long-suffering look on his face. America sighed, and was resigned to be asked about it every day for the rest of his tour._

* * *

><p>"You know, I wonder if Alfred's still married to that British woman."<p>

"Of course he is, Nick. He was absolutely _dedicated_ to her," Theo said.

"Yeah, just because we're old wifeless codgers doesn't mean that he doesn't get to have a happy life," Jack said with a grin.

"Remind me again why you didn't get married, Theo. We all know why Nick didn't," Alex said as Nick started to simultaneously hit on twins in the baggage claim area, "I was too busy with my work to even think about it, and honestly, who would marry Jack?"

"Hey! I was a very successful paper pusher in an accounting firm, thank you very much. Not everybody can be an architect or a philosopher with a bunch of books or a…whatever you were, Theo."

"I was a history professor, remember?" Theo said, sighing. "Honestly, how many times must I tell you?"

"And that's not exactly what I meant Jack, but let's go with that. So…why, Theo?"

"Well…I never really met anybody. Alfred set the bar kind of high, you know. I think I was convinced that I was going to happen upon this wonderful woman and everything would be brilliant. It didn't happen."

"I got the luggage!" Nick said, coming over with two suitcases of clothes-which was about all they had to their names right now. "And those twin's phone numbers," he said with a smirk. "Now, can we get out of here to the hotel? I'm kind of jetlagged."

"Aren't we all? Anyway, tomorrow, we'll have a look around," Theo said definitely as they started to walk out of the terminal. Until Jack, not paying attention, walked into a man with large eyebrows and green eyes.

"Oi, watch where you're going, you tosser!" he said, very irate and very British.

"Sorry, sorry," Jack said, backing up and turning back to walk. "Jeez. Stupid Brit."

"I wonder if they're all like that," Nick said. They all looked at each other, and burst out laughing at a shared vision of Alfred getting ordered around by an angry British woman.

* * *

><p>"Arthur, Artie!" America called through the crowd at the terminal, lugging his baggage. Then he finally spotted him, muttering under his breath. "Arthur!" England looked up and walked very, <em>very<em> quickly over to him for an all-encompassing hug.

"Welcome back, lovely," he purred lowly into his ear. "I've missed you terribly."

"So have I," America said, squeezing him tighter. England gasped and whacked him on the arm.

"Ugh, you're crushing my ribcage, you stupid git." America let go, sheepish, but put a possessive arm around England as they walked out of the terminal.

"What were you muttering about when I got here, babe?"

"Don't call me that. And some stupid tosser walked into me. He was one of _yours_ too," England said, disgruntled. America laughed.

"Not all of us Americans can be so considerate of your old man-ness and your fragile bones," he said, teasing. England whacked him, but only half-heartedly.

"What was strange was…he smelled faintly of magic."

"Huh. Speaking of that, did you get my text?"

"Yes. I know it was _something_, but without any context I can't figure out what happened," he said, shaking his head. America sighed.

"All right then."

"Don't focus on it love." England dropped his voice. "Focus on me."

"Oh, is that a challenge? Or a _promise?" _ England raised an eyebrow to him.

"It's whatever you want it to be, lovely." The taxi couldn't come fast enough.

* * *

><p>Notes: Okay, so... a few end notes for you. If you didn't exactly get what happened, the fairies overheard America and England's conversation, and decided to 'fix' it in their own special way. And on America and fairies: a little known canon fact is that America does inherit England's Sight...for all of a minute on Halloween. I think that's enough to believe that the supernatural exist and that when he pretends not to know what England's talking about he's teasing him. Don't ask me exactly where it is, it was somewhere Himayura's notes.<p> 


	4. Chapter 4

Hi, and here's chapter 4 of Brothers Under the Sun! This is the chapter you've all been waiting for! ...More or less. They still don't meet America but they get an idea of what _exactly_ is going on here.

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Hetalia, but I own my boys.

* * *

><p>The Hague turned out to be everything of Nick's dreams, so they spent a day being dragged around to various locations by him and lectured on the architectural significance as Theo jointly lectured about the <em>historical<em> significance. Theo was actually sure that Jack was about to throw himself out their hotel window by the end of that day. At least Alex had been silent when he wasn't complaining about being in The Hague, of all places.

"I just realized we missed all the marijuana by about a hundred miles or less," Nick said, at the end of the day. "We should have went to Amsterdam."

"The note said here," Jack said firmly, sitting down and pulling out another piece of glitterfied paper. "And I got another one, too. We're going to the Peace Palace tomorrow…_again._" They had spent a half hour looking at it from afar, because you couldn't get any closer without authorization. Nick had been heartbroken.

"The UN's headquarters? How the _hell_ are we getting in?" Alex demanded, as Nick punched the air.

"Um…I haven't thought that far yet. I'm sure something will come to Theo," Jack told them. Theo gave him a look.

"Thank you for pinning this solely on me. I'm honored."

"Theo, I don't doubt that you can get us in that building and help us find Alfred so we can get to the bottom of this crazy shit," Nick said. "Because I'm pretty sure Alfred did lie to us, but I'm now also pretty sure he had an _excellent_ reason."

"So…now we're not only listening to fairies and entertaining the supernatural, we're sneaking into the judicial center of the _United Nations._ How is this a good idea?" Alex shouted.

"It's not!" Jack said with a grin.

"But we're going to do it anyway. So quit complaining, Alex. Or else Theo will give you the look of supreme annoyance he gets." Theo gave it to all three of them, wanting this conversation to end. The three of them decided to let it rest, and get ready to break into the UN tomorrow.

The next morning (after being kept awake that night by a very loud gay couple next door, though Nick swore up and down that one of the voices sounded familiar) they departed bright and early for the Peace Palace, turning in their keys at the front desk.

"Um, excuse me, but…might you know who was in the room next to us? They were very loud last night," Theo asked. The man looked at him like he was stupid.

"That is none of your business, sir. And anyway, it's classified. They've been doing business here for a _very_ long time, and I'm not about to lose their trust. They pay quite a lot to keep that room reserved just for them. If they want to be as loud as they want, they can. Now, good day, sir."

"Uh…" Theo blinked. Nick grabbed him by the arm and pulled him out onto the street.

"Never, _ever_ ask questions like that," Nick said, pointing a finger at him as Jack hailed a cab. "You're not going to like the answers." For once, Theo decided to take Nick's advice.

The cab dropped them off at the gate, and they wandered down the iron wrought fence, wondering how the hell they were going to get in.

"This is hopeless. We should go back to the damn hotel," Alex muttered, trailing a hand over the wrought iron.

"Don't be such a spoil sport, Alex. We'll get in. Somehow. The fairies will help us, or something," Jack said.

"Fairies." Alex snorted. "What next?"

"KESESESESESESE!"

"What…the _hell_…was that?" Nick said. They followed the sound around the corner to come to an albino man, with a _chick_ on his head, preparing a grappling hook. The camera was already disconnected.

"Um…" Theo said, drawing the man's attention. He looked up, red eyes focusing on them.

"…You guys aren't security, are you?" He gave them a practiced once over, spine snapping into perfect military bearing. His English was impeccable, but his accent was faintly German.

"No… Actually, we're trying to break in," Jack said on a whim. "Are you?"

"Of course I am! I have to get in somehow. Stupid idiots never include me in the meetings…even my own damn brother…" he said, muttering. "Anyway, I guess you guys can come with, as long as you're not there to like…hold people hostage or something."

"No, we're just looking for someone," Theo reassured the man. "Now, I'm Theo, that's Nick, Jack and Alex," he said, pointing at each of them. "Who're you?" The man grinned at them, and his teeth were in points.

"I am the Great and Awesome Nation of Prussia, but you can call me Gilbert. That's Gilbird," he said, pointing at the chick on his head as he threw the grappling hook over and scrambled up it with practiced ease. The four of them were still standing there.

"Prussia… That was a country, wasn't it?" Alex said. "Some German country?"

"…Yes," Theo said.

"Alex, _never _ask 'what's next?'_ ever _again_._"

"Are you four coming or not? Because if you aren't, I am totally going to leave you here," Gilbert shouted from the other side of the fence. They all looked at each other and scrambled over the rope.

"So you're…_Prussia?_" Nick started with once they were on the other side. "Like, the country Prussia?"

"Yep. I'm an anthropomorphic personification or something like that. Ever heard of it?" he asked, picking his way across the back lawn, darting from tree to tree. The four followed him closely.

"I have," Alex said. "They're the living representations of an abstract concept. Like… Father Time, or the Grim Reaper. Supposedly there's ones for countries too, like Marianne for France and Britannia for England." Gilbert snorted.

"France is _not_ a chick. Not even close. England on the other hand… he's close. He embroiders, but I remember what he was like when he was a pirate in the 1600s. Not very nice." He looked back at them "So yeah, that's the long and the short of it. I'm a Nation."

"But Prussia was dissolved during the Third Reich," Theo said. "If you're the Nation of Prussia, then how are you still here?"

"Yeah. Stupid asshole of a boss of my little brother's decided to do that. After the war was over I got trapped on the other side of the wall and became East Germany. God… I _hate_ Russia. And then after the reunification, there were still a lot of Prussian sentiments. And I refuse to give up and go to Heaven. Rome's up there. And I still have to bother Austria and Hungary," he said, rambling. "Without me, Hungary would have no one to hit with her frying pan. Or take pictures of when I try to take Silesia again-That's Austria's vital regions," he said with a grin and wink. "Man, that was a fun war. Old Fritz was _proud_." The way he spoke, the way his eyes looked, the way he held himself, it screamed of the fact that he was telling the truth.

"…The War of Austrian Succession," Theo said, almost in a daze. "Silesia, a territory of Austria, was seized by Prussia."

"Yep! Everybody was fighting with _everybody. _France, Spain and I, they called us the Bad Friends Trio. We were kicking ass left, right and center!"

"…Oh god, I don't want to ask this but…France. What does he look like?" Nick asked. Gilbert looked at them strangely, but answered.

"He's got long wavy hair, and of course he likes to speak French, and his got this smug smirk…it's actually pretty damn awesome, and he only dresses in the finest things."

"…And _Mathieu?_" Jack added, hesitantly.

"Oh, that's what he calls Matt. Matt used to be his colony but got passed onto England after the Seven Year's War. … Matt's Canada, by the way. He also makes really good pancakes with maple syrup. And he carries around this bear…I think his name is Kuma…something. A lot of people forget he exists, because America has always overshadowed him."

"…" They were all speechless. Alex was the first one to speak. "Uh…Jack?"

"Yes?"

"…I think I might believe you now, because at this point, fairies seem logical."

"And…um…America's name would be…?" Theo asked. All four of them held their breath, even though they just kind of _knew_, now.

"Oh, Alfred. Alfred F. Jones. Nobody knows what the F stand for. Either one day he decided to add it on or England got drunk when he named him. Both are likely. And now they're fucking each other like bunny rabbits."

"…The English woman… Who's actually a _guy?"_ Jack said, flailing.

"I _KNEW_ THAT VOICE SOUNDED FAMILIAR!" Nick shouted, triumphant.

"Oh my god, it's all true!" Alex said with a look of absolute horror on his face. "I am _never_ doubting anything _ever_ again."

"I'm in some sort of heaven," Theo said dreamily.

"…Um, are you guys all right?" Prussia asked.

"Yes!" They all said as one. Prussia smirked at them.

"You're new to this Nation thing, aren't you? Don't worry, it gets easier… after it gets weirder."

"I think we've already hit weird. And gone straight past it," Nick said.

"We've fallen down the rabbit hole. And I don't think we're _ever_ going to claw ourselves out," Alex said, finally calming down enough to talk.

"We were the ones stupid enough to go chase the rabbit," Jack said, finishing Alex's metaphor for him.

"Just stick with me, boys, and I'll get you through." Prussia saluted at them, and waltzed into the Peace Palace's back door and the four of them hesitantly followed.

"Oh my god, it's so beautiful…" Nick said, looking all around him. Jack elbowed him.

"Focus, Nick."

"I am focusing!"

"So…you guys don't age, do you?" Theo said, ignoring them.

"Well, not normally. It's based on the development of our country. China's over 4,000 years old, but he doesn't look a day past 22, at most. It's a difficult thing to call. Just look at me. I'm supposed to be _dead._"

"So…he probably looks the same," Nick said, finally paying attention.

"Who?" Prussia asked, pressing the up button for the elevator.

"Alfred…er, America. Oh, that is weird," Jack said, wrinkling his nose. The door pinged, and Prussia ushered them in, pressing a floor number like he knew where he was going. They trusted him.

"If you're close to him, you can call him by his human name," Prussia said. "And as far as I know, he still looks the same as he did a hundred years ago. Why, how old are _you_ guys supposed to be?" The door to the elevator opened up onto a nondescript hallway.

"Gilbert! What are you doing here?" a blond blue eyed man asked as they stepped off of the elevator Prussia had ushered them onto.

"West!" he slung his arm around the man's shoulders. "Guys, this is my little bro, Germany. And his boyfriend, North Italy," he said, gesturing around to a thin man with an outrageous hair curl.

"Ve~ Nice to meet you, whomever you are!"

"Gilbert, how did you get in?" Germany said, sighing. "And why did you bring humans with you?"

"I rappelled over the fence!" he said, cheerfully. Gilbird chirped along with him. "And they were breaking in too. But don't worry, they're not like those guys that tried to hold us all hostage once. Man, that was fun. Poor bastards. Anyway, they're looking for America."

"I saw America this morning with England! They were being cute together. And then they started arguing like they always do. Kind of like an old married couple!" North Italy said with a happy bounce. Prussia snorted.

"They _are_ an old married couple. But which way did they go? I need to send these guys in the right direction, 'cause I have to go find Hungary and Austria."

"Oh, he went that way!" North Italy said, pointing in a general direction up the hallway. "I hope you find him. C'mon, Ludwig, I'm hungry and want pastaaaaaaa!" he exclaimed, drawing out the last syllable and dragging Germany in the other direction.

"But you just _had_ pasta, Feliciano…" he said, sighing as they both turned the corner.

"So, good luck. Just head that way. Don't worry, you're bound to run into somebody that has seen him. Just if the guy is carrying around a faucet pipe or is tall with a long scarf…_run_." And with that, Prussia turned and wandered off, whistling cheerfully, Gilbird chirping along.

"…A _faucet pipe?_" Alex questioned, incredulous.

"At this point I'm not questioning it," Jack said. They all stood there for a minute. "So…who's going first?"

"…Wimps," Nick said, glaring, and stalking down the hall. "I am going to find Alfred if it's the last thing I do, and no faucet pipes or any sort of weirdness is going to stop me!"

"Brother, your breasts belong to me!" A man that looked Oriental with long hair came running around the corner, almost knocked down Nick, apologized to him, and kept running straight for the elevator, clinging to a bunch of files.

"No, Yong Soo, they don't!" he yelled, looking over his shoulder as he pressed the button for the elevator repeatedly. "Come on, come on, you stupid thing!" Then another Oriental man came running around the corner, with a twirling hair much like North Italy's…with a face in it?

"Elevators were invented in Korea!"

"Argh, no they weren't! Stop bothering me!" The doors finally opened and the man dove in.

"Yao, wait for me!" Korea shouted and dove in after him as the doors closed.

"…I've changed my mind. Theo, our fearless leader, you go first." Theo sighed and wandered ahead down the hall. Nick followed behind and Alex and Jack brought up the rear.

* * *

><p>Notes: The Peace Palace is the judiciary center of the UN, centered in The Hague, the Netherlands. The administrative center for the UN is located in New York City. And Amsterdam is indeed known for it's red light district, and the fact that everybody smokes marijuana there because marijuana is legal in the Netherlands.<p> 


	5. Chapter 5

Hello all, and here's chapter five of this story. As usual, the notes about the contents of the chapter are at the end.

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Hetalia, but I own my boys.

* * *

><p><em>America watched from the door as Theo, Jack and Alex sat stunned at their table. What they were watching was pretty obvious, as Nick chatted up a hot blond nurse on one side of him, and them, once she left, turned to the Navy man on his right, asking if he could buy him a drink. He <em>knew_ it. He had to go a bit closer to hear their conversation, though._

"_So…" Jack started. "Nick's homosexual."_

"_I think the correct term is bisexual, and yes," Alex said._

"_If he doesn't stop, he's going to get caught!" Theo hissed under his breath. "You know what they _do_ to people like him?"_ _Theo made to get up, but Alex pulled him back down._

"_Draw attention to it, and he will get caught. And anyway, nobody's looking. He's usually friendly; they'll think he's just being friendly."_

"_Who's friendly?" America finally said, coming over and sitting down next to Jack. The four of them jumped._

"_Alfred! Don't _do_ that," Jack said, ruffled._

"_You guys should talk quieter. I could hear you over there." America fixed his eye on Nick. "Not that I didn't already know."_

"…_You _already _knew_ _that he was bisexual?" Alex asked, incredulous, but his voice considerably lowered._

"_Guys, he wears eyeliner. He's much too fashionable not to be. Also, he reminds me…of someone I know." Comparing Nick to France led his mind down paths he didn't want it to go down, though. So he stopped it right there._

_Jack huffed. "Why didn't he tell us?"_

"_I think I put it best. You are aware of what they do to homosexuals, never mind bisexuals, right, Jack?" Theo said, taking a sip of his tonic. "Obviously he was afraid of what might happen."_

"_Like we'd ever tell anyone," Jack said, snorting._

"_People like him are afraid that they'll be rejected by the ones they care about most. Namely…us," Alex said._

"_But that's just stupid. He's just…Nick. I know that doesn't explain it…" Jack said, trailing off. America was suddenly hit with a surge of guilt, because he was lying to them about not one, but two things. First he had lied to them about his nature, of all things, and then he had lied about Arthur. …At least, maybe now, he could come clean about at least one thing._

"_Hey, can I tell you guys something…?" America asked, absently playing with his ring. They all looked at him, and he opened his mouth, the words already forming in the back of his throat, but he was then cut off by Nick walking over with the Navy man._

"_Hey, I'm going with James for a nightcap back at his tent, okay?" The four of them nodded mechanically, and watched as Nick swaggered off with his catch._

"_So unsubtle…" Alex said, shaking his head. "Hey… how about a friendly bet?" Alex said, getting that smirk on his face. "I bet that Nick will never actually tell us, and we'll have to tell him we know."_

"_I bet that Nick won't tell us, but we'll walk in on him with some guy in bed," Jack said._

"_I refuse to participate in this stupid bet," Theo said firmly."…And I would hope that Nick would realize that we wouldn't persecute him and tell us on his own accord."_

"_I bet that we find out about somebody else being homosexual or bisexual, and Nick will use that to tell us," America finally said._

"…_That's awfully specific, Alfred. But if you want to bet it...Now, what the hell do the losers give the winner?" Jack asked. "And Theo, we're using that at your bet."_

"_The winner gets to decide on winning the bet," Alex said. America realized that they had forgotten all about him wanting to tell them something. He decided that discretion was the better part of valor and since he was trying not to get close anyway, he would let it slide. It was a stupid idea anyway, to tell them. How would he have even told them how he had met Arthur? Arthur being his brother and caretaker obviously wouldn't be a good thing to say, and then he would have to make up _more_ lies. Better to keep it simple._

* * *

><p>"So…" Jack started. "Alfred's gay."<p>

"Didn't see that coming," Alex agreed.

"And what's so wrong with it?" Nick snapped suddenly. Jack and Alex jumped at the hostility in Nick's voice. "It doesn't make him any different than anybody else. Alfred's Alfred," he said firmly. "And something like this shouldn't change our perspective on him."

Theo sighed. "Nick… Is there something you want to tell us?"

"No!" he shouted. "…Okay, yes. Maybe I might swing both ways. Okay, not maybe, _definitely_. But I never said anything because as we all know; the 40's and 50's were _so_ friendly to bisexuals. They were _blacklisting_ homosexuals. You think they'd care if I liked guys and girls equally? I mean, I know I'm pretty much proving the stereotype right of that whole promiscuous bisexual thing and-"

"Nick!" Theo shouted.

"What?"

"You're rambling, and _we already knew._"

"You…what?"

Alex sighed. "Nick, we already knew. Sometimes you weren't exactly…subtle, at least around us. We were taking bets to see when you would finally tell us."

"I also refused to bet, but they wouldn't let me," Theo interjected.

"Anyway," Alex continued, glaring. "We gave up after the 90's, though. If you weren't going to tell us then, you were _never_ going to tell us. Guess we were wrong."

"Though, think of it this way," Jack said, slinging an arm around Nick's shoulders. "You may have proved one stereotype right, but you have disproved the myth that nobody over fifty is gay."

"Thank you, Jack, for calling me an old fart." But it wasn't as sarcastic as Nick would usually be. Jack grinned.

"Well, technically we're all old farts. …Including Alfred, which makes me laugh."

"Technically, he was old when we met him. Think about how old _America_ is itself, and the fact that he was probably the 13 colonies too," Theo lectured. "That gives him a good 300 years on us."

"Wow. That is true," Nick said. "Weird."

"Wait a minute… Alfred won the bet!" Jack said suddenly. "He said that Nick would tell us after we found out that somebody else was bi- or homosexual. Granted, he was the person, but…"

"He also tried to tell us," Theo said. "Remember?"

"Wait, wait, wait, when the hell was this?" Nick asked.

"You were over at the bar chatting up some Navy sailor. We just found out from that, and Alfred tried to tell us, but you cut him off when you came over to tell us you were going to score with said sailor in 'subtle' language," Jack said, making air quotes. "Incidentally, you did use a condom, right?"

Nick gave him a flat stare. "You are about five seconds away from getting punched. Of _course_ I use condoms, idiot."

"Well, you wouldn't want to catch anything you can't get rid of, like chlamy-"

"_Anyway!_" Theo said hastily, cutting off Jack before he could get into trouble. "We've been walking for about ten minutes, and we haven't seen anything. Are you sure they pointed us in the right direction?"

"Maybe we could help," a voice said behind them.

"Like, totally, Liet. That one with the black hair is _so_ fashionable." They all turned as one to see two men standing there, one flicking his light blond hair.

"Are you new here? You look lost," the man with the brown hair said, smiling.

"Um, we're looking for um…America. Have you seen him?" Theo asked, stumbling over the America part. It was still strange to call Alfred that.

"Oh! Alfred! I just saw him a bit ago. Come with me," he said, walking off. The blond haired man sighed.

"Lieeeeet! What about going to get some food?" he said with a whine before he went off after him. The four of them looked at each other and followed a bit warily.

"They're friends of Alfred's. I just can't leave them there. I owe him a lot, remember?"

"You do?" Alex asked, surprised. He nodded, smiling.

"See, I went bankrupt in the 20's, so Alfred took me in and let me be his housekeeper. Until the Great Depression hit and I had to go back to Russia."

"You should have come back to me, Liet. I've seen what Russia has done to you," the blond haired man said. "I'm telling you, if he does _anything_ to you, tell me, and I'll make his new capital Warsaw!"

"Theo…" Jack said, nudging him. "Give us a clue here."

"Poland," he said, pointing at the blond man. "And I'm guessing…Lithuania?"

"Wow, you're like, really good. Yes, I'm Poland."

"And I'm Lithuania. I'm sorry, but we never asked your names."

"Oh, I'm Theo. That's Alex," Theo said, gesturing behind him at Alex who waved.

"And we're Nick and Jack," Nick said, smiling. Jack elbowed him.

"It's _Jack and Nick."_

Lithuania's eyes widened. "Oh, you're them! The men that Alfred served with!" They stared at him, speechless.

"Liet, you like… know them?"

"No… Alfred talked about them, though. But that was World War II…"

"It's a long story," Theo said, sighing.

"We're not even sure what happened. We've decided not to question it," Nick said with a grin. "It's a lot better than how we were doing before."

"I think it was fairies," Jack said.

"Like…England's fairies? Because he does have them."

The three of them turned to look at Jack, who developed a smug look on his face. "I can't believe you were right," Alex said with a sigh. "I cannot believe that fairies actually exist. There goes my worldview."

"Your worldview isn't already gone, Alex?" Jack replied back. "I mean, we're talking to the anthropomorphic personifications of Nations here."

"…You guys are weird," Poland said.

"_We're_ weird?" Alex said, incredulous. "But fairies and Nations and…"

"Don't be stupid, Alex. Every good philosopher knows that weird is relative, depending on who considers _what_ weird," Jack said with a grin. Alex looked over at him in shock. "See, I _do_ listen to you!"

"LAAAAATVIA!"

"Holy shit, what was that!" Nick said, jumping. Lithuania looked shocked for a moment, and then became deadly serious and started to run towards the shout.

"Raivis, Eduard!"

"Liet, no!" Poland yelled, and took off after him, leaving them once again alone in the hallway.

"Theo, some clarification please?" Jack said, watching them turn a corner and disappear.

"Latvia is a Baltic Nation, along with Estonia and Lithuania. All I can think of is that Latvia got into some sort of trouble, Estonia called his name, and Lithuania went to rescue them."

"...Thank you for being a history professor, Theo. Without you, we would be _lost_," Nick said. "Well, erm, more lost than we already are."

"Nick, question," Alex said as they started to wander back down the hallway, checking around corners. At Nick's look, he asked, "Did you ever consider going out with any of us?"

"…Ugh, no!" he said, wrinkling his nose and shaking his head. "That's gross!"

"Oh, thank you for that, Nick," Jack said, disgruntled and letting his arm fall from around Nick's shoulders. Theo rolled his eyes.

"No, no, it's just… you guys are like my brothers. That'd be…really disgusting," he said, wrinkling his nose some more. "Honestly I never thought of it."

"…Oh," Jack said. And then he started laughing and swung his arm back around Nick's shoulder. "Brothers to the end, huh?"

"It's the only reason we'd be here, chasing after Alfred," Nick said, returning the grin. "Exposing ourselves to all this crazy stuff…"

And then something ran by them down the hallway that crossed theirs. The four of them blinked.

"Was that…?" Jack asked, amused.

"The French guy who called us humans, who is probably France, naked except for a rose pasted onto his co-?"

"NICK!" Alex and Theo shouted as one.

"What? Don't be such prudes," he said laughing.

"Francis, stop flashing everybody! Oh, _mon dieu,_ why do I volunteer for this sort of thing?" And then _Mathieu_-Matthew? Canada?-ran into their vision and stopped in the middle of the hallway, breathing heavily and clinging to his bear, who they could see now was _breathing_.

"Um…" Alex started. He jumped, and turned to look at them.

"…Do I know you guys? You all look familiar… And how can you see me? Nobody sees me. They always mistake me for my brother," he said sadly.

The bear yawned. "Who are you?"

"I'm _Canada,_ Kuma."

"Maybe it's because we _know_ you aren't Alfred," Jack said. "Even though you do look a _lot_ like him."

"That's because we're twins," he said absently, squinting into their faces. "Hey, you look like those old guys… oh, _merde._"

* * *

><p>Notes: In the 1950's, during the Red Scare and McCarthyism, homosexuals were indeed blacklisted for being perverse and somehow, being communist. In those days, being blacklisted was an almost death sentence, as you couldn't get work, you couldn't travel, the government watched your every move, and nobody wanted to have anything to do with a blacklisted individual. In the 30's and 40's, homosexuality was also viewed in a negative light, though interestingly enough, not in the 20's-you would not <em>believe<em> some of the stuff that was okay in the 20's. And the word bisexual was actually coined in the late 1800's.


	6. Chapter 6

Hello all! This is the chapter you've all been waiting for! Well...kinda. You'll see. Hopefully you'll find it hilarious.

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Hetalia, but I own my boys.

* * *

><p>"We can explain. Ish," Nick said earnestly.<p>

"It was the fairies!" Jack said triumphantly. The other three groaned, realizing they were _never_ going to live this down.

"…So _that_ was the reason behind the glitter monstrosity," Canada said more to himself than anybody.

"…'Glitter monstrosity'?" Alex said, making airquotes.

"The glitter monstrosity on Al's desk two days ago before he left his country. He took a picture of it. It was from a fairy and said something like 'It has been done, lover of my sacred country'. Arthur figured it was his fairies, but without a reference didn't know what they'd done. Now it makes sense."

"We've been getting notes like that, telling us where to go, covered in glitter," Jack said, showing one to Canada.

"I still cannot believe that it really was fairies," Alex said, huffing. "That's ridiculous."

"No more ridiculous than talking to me," Canada said coolly, looking at the notes. "Listen, you four hurt my brother, and you'll find out why Canadians were compared to Boogeymen in Germany. And that's _nothing_ compared to what Arthur will do."

"…U-understood," Jack said, shifting away from Canada a bit at the dark expression on his face. Until brightened considerably.

"Anyway, this makes sense. They would do something like this for Alfred, because not only are they Arthur's, they've always liked him, even though he can't see them. Arthur once told me it was because of his warm nature and his friendliness. _Mon dieu_, my brother is like some sort of friend to all living things. He had a pet rabbit plus all the wild rabbits that played with him, and deer liked to chew on his hair and birds sang when he walked past and… Actually, no, they still do that. If you plopped him down in the middle of a forest, all the little woodland creatures would come and play with him. He's like the perfect bait for a hunting expedition, but he won't ever let you do that. I've seen him pet _bears_ before, and nothing's happened. Of course, it's not like he could defend himself, with his freakish strength, I mean, who pulls a car around just to find the person who owns it to see if they could borrow it? Or toss around a buffalo when they're like five years old? I mean, he can't even see fairies, can he? Well, he can for one minute on Halloween and having The Sight terrifies him beyond all measure, and yet the fairies still like him. I mean, everybody likes him, you guys, Arthur, little random woodland creatures, practically anybody who matters, and what happens to me? Russia _sits_ on me and never notices that I'm there. Or I get mistaken for him and Russia tries to molest me or Cuba tries to yell at me or I get in trouble for things I didn't do and people always forget my birthday because of him because it's July 1st! Al's birthday is July 4th and nobody ever remembers me. Do you know how many belated birthday cards I get because they all remember on the 5th after Al's party? That was the most horrendous day to declare my independence and the stupid Canadians who did it deserve to be shot. And he always has fireworks and cake and everybody comes and I have to attend and they all mistake me for Al and it's terrible and c'mon, you think they would notice the _polar bear_ I have and he likes the most terrible foods like McDonald's of all things and eats hamburgers and has an alien who lives in his basement who always beats me at videogames and-"

"Matthew, what have I told you about ranting at your brother, even if he is present or not?" the English man that Jack had bumped into at the airport glided past, holding a cup of tea.

"Sorry, Arthur," Canada said. "…Arthur!" He lunged after him, grabbing his shoulders. "Where's Al?"

"Steady on, he's in a meeting. Why do you ask?" Then he looked up at them. "Oi, and who are they? Wait… you're the tosser that bumped into me at the airport while I was waiting for Alfred!" And there, shining on his right ring finger was the duplicate to Alfred's ring, complete with Old English.

"…That other voice… It's him!" Nick said, flailing.

"Oh shit, I'm _fucked_," Jack said. "Theo…my will is in the drawer of my desk. Everything goes to you guys."

Theo rolled his eyes. "Sorry, ignore him. He's being dramatic."

"Arthur, they're the guys that Al was talking about. That's what the fairies meant."

"…Oh _bollocks._ And I know exactly _when_ it happened, also. They must have overheard Alfred and I talking on the phone that night when I told him to come to The Hague early," England said. "This is not good."

"You think? Al's going to freak or have a nervous breakdown or something!" Canada said. "You have to reverse it or something!"

"And now who's being overdramatic? I rather think that Alfred is made of stronger stuff that that. And I can't reverse it, it's permanent. Anybody with a Sight can see that. It's just I'm not quite sure how to tell him."

"…You are perfectly all right with a bunch of humans knowing about _us?_ I thought you were against this entire thing."

"Well, now that they're here and practically for all purposes like us, there's not much I can say about it, is there?" England said, rolling his eyes at Canada. "And anyway, if it makes Alfred happy, then I'm not going to complain about it."

"Um, excuse me," Alex said, breaking in. "But what do you mean, 'like us'?"

England started at being addressed and fixed Alex with an intense green eyed stare. "I mean, that the fairies made you like us, as in young and for all purposes immortal. I'm not quite sure _how_ far it stretches, so for the sake of safety don't go jumping off twenty story buildings or throwing yourself in front of bullets." He then switched the stare to all of them, like he was assessing all of them. Nick stuck out his tongue at him and Jack made a face. Theo just rolled his eyes at the two of them.

England snorted at that. "You are definitely Alfred's friends. Bloody idiot," he said fondly, smiling down at the gleaming ring on his finger.

"_Mon dieu,_ you people are all insane," Canada said.

"Matthew, weren't you chasing France?" England said irritably.

"…Damn! I have to catch him before he traumatizes someone!" And with that he ran off, clinging to his bear. England snorted.

"I'm pretty sure that _everyone_ has either seen France naked or been groped by him at least once."

"Incidentally, does he glue that rose on with superglue?" Nick asked.

"Only when I switch it," England said right back without missing a beat. Jack and Nick snickered. "Sorry, but I don't know your names."

"Oh, I'm Theo Wilson, the annoying one is Nick Harrison…"

"I'm Jack Reeds and the non-believer is Alex Evans. Shun him, shun the non-believer!"

"You are _never_ going to let the fairy thing drop, are you?" Alex said, annoyed.

"Jack called that it was the fairies and Alex didn't believe him," Theo explained.

"None of you believed me, but you were all wrong!" Jack said, laughing almost maniacally.

"I say we leave him," Nick said. England rolled his eyes.

"How about you all come with me?"

* * *

><p>America was bored. Incredibly bored. Somebody was droning on about something, and he wasn't quite sure why he was even here. Currently, across from him, Spain and South Italy were actually playing Tic-Tac-Toe and <em>not arguing<em>. They must be bored out of their minds.

He slipped his phone out of his pocket and set it to vibrate, texting England. '_hey babe, whatcha doin'?'_

'_Being annoyed' _ was his answer.

America grinned, and then texted right back, '_so, what are you wearing?'_

'_you…you…you can't text me that!' _And right on the heels of that, _'he's wearing a green vest with rather tight black pants-N'_ Okay, who the hell was N? Ugh, probably France or one of England's unruly brothers.

'_is he blushing?'_ he asked back.

'_like a_ virgin-_N_' and then '_I am not a virgin!'_ and then _'obviously-J'_ and then _'would you two stop that?-T'_

'_what the hell is going on over there?'_ he texted back, trying to place the initials.

'_you husband is trying to _kill me!_-N' _ and '_with good reason-A'_ and then '_nobody asked you!-N'_ and _'you're using up all my bloody minutes, you sodding idiots!'_

America blinked. _'do I even want to know?'_

'_they're fighting over the phone in the hallway-T'_

N, J, T and A. It sounded familiar, so very familiar… And then all of a sudden it clicked. '_…HOLY SHIT'_

'_congrats, Alfred. you have passed know your friends 101!-Nick'_

America was shocked, just staring at the phone screen as the screen lit up with more texts.

'_Alfred?-Nick' _and _'ALFRED-Nick' _and '_nice job, captain idiot, you've made him go into shock-Jack' _and '_ugh, you two are impossible!- Alex' _ and _'would you three stop talking for a moment?-Theo'_ and then finally _'lovely, are you all right?'_

'_explain. NOW'_

'_to make a long story short-we came after you like we said we would and got turned out of the office and then accidentally met your brother and then met France but you already knew that already because you were in the tree, you _asshole_ and then got made young and immortal by your husband's fairies and got basically led by the hand here by them and snuck in with Prussia and he told us _everything _and encountered all these crazy nations including Germany, North Italy, Korea, some long haired Asian guy, Lithuania and Poland and France streaked past us and your brother ranted at us for five minutes straight about you and then we met your husband and started fighting over the phone and here we are!-Nick'_

'…_that was _short?_-Alex' _and_ 'it's a very long story-Nick' _and_ 'I called the fairy thing! and everybody thought I was crazy!-Jack'_ and then _'SHUT UP, JACK-Nick, Theo and Alex' _and finally,_ 'your friends are driving me mad, Alfred'_

America rested his forehead on the table and started to laugh, hysterically, in the middle of a meeting. And he didn't care who the hell thought he was insane. And suddenly all the tension he had built up was gone in the blink of an eye. _'you guys have been pretty busy'_ he finally texted.

'_tell us about it. Nick finally told us! ...you won, by the way. Which is a form of cheating, because he told us because we found out about _you_-Alex'_ and '_we know you secrets now, _America_, and we're pretty sure we've been over the entire 'x is x and nothing changes that' thing, remember?-Jack'_ and finally '_you guys were super loud last night, by the way…we were in the hotel room next door :)-Nick'_

'_you were… oh my god!'_ America blushed to the very roots of his hair. Usually he wasn't prudish about these things, but that was just…

'_which leads to the question of…who was topping?-Nick'_ and right on the heels of that, '_NICK!-Alex and Theo'_ and then, _'I was'._ America almost died right there.

'_Artie, don't say that! what happened to being embarrassed?'_

'_think of it as payback for asking me what I was wearing, you git'_

'_but…but…this is worse!'_

'_don't worry, your friends may die from lack of air as they are laughing too much, so there won't be any witnesses'_

'_guys, this is _not_ cool! stop laughing!'_

'_Alfred's right. Stop laughing. Everybody knows that all good husbands bottom sometimes. Unless you're always a bottom-Nick'_ and _'NICK-Alex'_ and '_that's it. I'm confiscating the phone. Alfred, we'll see you when the meeting is over-Theo'_ and finally '_I like this one, Alfred. Very responsible'_

'_Guh. I will get you back for that…I will get you _all_ back for that'_ was the final text he sent, before he put it on silent and tried to focus back in on the meeting, tamping down the nerves that had sprung up now that he wasn't occupied.

* * *

><p>Note: Everything that is in Canada's rant is true or is my personal headcanon with backing in canon. Including the Sight bit, which is canon. Don't ask me where it was found.<p> 


	7. Chapter 7

Okay, you guys are going to kill me at the end of this chapter. I already know it. But the reason why it's split like that is because it worked out best, because I write it in the same document, and it all flows together, and this was the best cutting off point. So please don't eat me! And of course, see the notes page at the bottom.

**Disclaimer: **I do not own Hetalia, but I own my boys.

* * *

><p>"You <em>would<em> like Theo," Nick said, disgruntled that his new toy had been taken away. Theo handed England back his cell phone, and he slipped it back into his pocket. They were now sitting on an elaborate staircase that they had basically almost fallen down while texting Alfred back and forth furiously.

"Question," Jack said, holding up one finger. "How long have you two been together?"

"How long indeed," England said, huffing. "In a little more than a decade, we will be celebrating our 100th anniversary."

"…Whoa," Jack said, blinking. "That's…a really long time."

"A really long time to have a ball and chain…I mean, be married," Nick said. "I couldn't survive being with just one person for that long."

"Ah… We weren't married until the start of World War II. I refused him when he asked during the 1920's."

"Why would you refuse _Alfred_?" Alex asked. "That makes no sense, if you loved him and you'd been together." Theo gave them the look of supreme annoyance.

"Would you three stop _hounding_ the man? He doesn't have to answer those questions, they're personal!"

"Well, however are we going to find out about Alfred?" Alex asked.

"It's not like he's brimming with information about himself," Nick added. "He lied to us for years."

"Still, you don't have to keep asking him things. Bother Alfred, when he finally gets out of that meeting," Theo said, crossing his arms.

"He'll tell you this time. I wouldn't worry about it. Though of course, predicting what Alfred is going to do is like predicting how the wind will blow next week. It's impossible," England said, snorting.

"…Could you…tell us more about him?" Jack asked, hesitantly. "He's our best friend, though it's kind of sad how much we know about him."

"A lot of his life you could look up in an American History textbook," England said, amused. "It's not that difficult."

"There is one thing…" Theo said. "It was very weird. Remember that one night, when we were coming back from the mess?"

"Oh, I remember that night!" Nick said, vaguely unsettled. "Yeah…that was…weird."

"Tell me," England said, fixing them with a look.

* * *

><p>"<em>Alfred, you totally missed it! Nick-Oh my god!"<em>

"_What?" America said, standing up abruptly, slinging his shirt over his shoulder. The four of them were standing in the entrance to the tent, staring at him._

"_Your chest... where did you get all those scars?" Theo asked._

_Oh, damn. He'd forgotten about that. His chest and back, of course, had very large scars on them from different things. The Civil War scars still ached a lot, especially Gettysburg, because everybody still remembered._

"_It was a really bad car accident when I was younger. I was lucky to live," he said, waving it off. And once again, he had to lie to them. The sad thing was that they also actually believed him._

"_But this one… it looks new," Nick said, pointing at the one on his shoulder. That was Pearl Harbor, so of course it would look new. "Damn, what are you _doing _to yourself?"_

"_Told you, I'm fine, guys," he told them again, putting on his shirt self-consciously. "And it was a car accident. A really nasty one. So quit asking and stop bringing up bad memories." Like mud of the battlefield and his citizens dying all around him and England on his knees in front of him and the Confederacy's high, ringing laughter and 'SIC SEMPER TYRANNIS' and the trenches and mustard gas-_

"_Alfred!" Someone was shaking him. He jolted back to look at Nick's slightly scared face. "Come back to us!"_

"_Huh, what? I'm fine, guys."_

"_You had that stare… The Thousand Yard Stare that traumatized soldiers get. You are _not_ fine," Alex said._

"_Guys, c'mon, drop it. I'm fine, really," he said backing out of Nick's hold and turned his back to them. "Anyway, it was a long time ago."_

"_We're not going to drop it until you tell us now," Jack said._

"_Alfred, we're worried about you," Theo told him, and America knew what he had to do, even though he was going to _hate_ himself for it._

"Forget about it!" _ he said, turning around and fixing them with his eyes, pouring raw power into his voice, the voice that compelled his citizens to do what he wanted them to. _"Don't worry about me, and don't ask about it again. I am fine!" _He watched their eyes go blank, and then after a second, they shook themselves from it._

"_Okay, Alfred…if you're sure," Theo said hesitantly, like he didn't know what he was saying._

"…_Anyway, you'll never believe what Nick did!" Alex continued, just as if that conversation hadn't happened. America smiled at them, ignoring the twanging of his conscience._

"_So, what did Nick do?"_

* * *

><p>"…He <em>brainwashed<em> us?" Nick asked incredulously.

"Brainwashing is too strong a word. He just used his influence over you as your Nation to get you to stop asking about his scars. Which incidentally, are scars from wars, though it's more like the wars and the battles themselves, not actual wounds. The fresh one you saw on his shoulder is Pearl Harbor, I believe. And it's all healed over now, I can attest to that," England said, sipping at a new cup of tea that he had practically drew out of nowhere.

"That's just… I've _seen_ them. That's a lot of scars," Alex said.

"Well, he's been in a lot of wars, hasn't he?" England replied. "I have more."

"…Are we in over our heads?" Jack asked.

"Jack, don't be stupid, of course we're not in over our heads," Nick said, standing up and backing up a bit to look at them all, sitting on the staircase. "This is Alfred we're talking about. He may have lied to us, but he didn't do it to be cruel or anything. He just did it because he _had_ to. And Alfred's Alfred and nothing's going to change, no matter how many revelations we have. Remember, Jack? We have come this far and are so close to finding him, that we can't give up now because we find out some kind of admittedly mindblowing stuff. And anyway, we're in for the long haul now thanks to the fairies. So now we _can't_ turn back," he said. The four of them stared past him at something behind, altering looks of horror and annoyance, in England's case.

"Nick." Theo took a deep breath. "Don't turn around."

"They're something horrible behind me, isn't there," he said. Nick flung himself forward and turned to see two men dressed in black with semi-automatics. "Oh…terrorists. Wonderful."

"Damn it, Prussia, how many times do we have to tell you, if you're going to _sneak in_, reconnect the damn camera," England said, disgruntled, standing up.

They didn't talk, but it was obvious what they wanted as they leveled their guns and everybody held up their hands.

"And so now we've been taken hostage by a bunch of men in black. So goes our lives," Jack droned.

"Jack, shut up!" The other three hissed.

"This is the third time in a year and a half and it's getting ridiculous," England said, shifting his weight. "Like _hell_ I'm going to be taken hostage again."

Five minutes later, they were stripping the unconscious men of their guns.

"That was _amazing,_ by the way," Nick said. "I think you broke this guy's jaw," he said disinterestedly. "Right hook?"

"I used to be a pirate," England said, checking the clip of the Beretta that he had pulled out of his jacket.

"Ah, that explains it. Man, I am going to have to get a gun if this shit is going to keep happening."

"I wonder how Alfred's doing," Jack thought as they divided up the guns between them and started walking down the hall.

* * *

><p>Across the Peace Palace, America was just waking up from the gunshot wound to his head. He reached up and felt his head-the wound was healed over, but his blond hair was sticky and matted with blood. Great. Stupid damn terrorists, Prussia probably left the damned camera down again, and they'd better had not gotten blood on his jacket, because this was his <em>bomber<em> jacket.

Thankfully, the idiots had thought he was dead, so they had left him where they had shot him, bleeding out on the floor of the meeting room. That's probably what he got for firing on the stupid bastards. Two of the aides hadn't survived, it seemed, but they were the only ones he was sharing the room with, so everybody else had to still be alive.

And then his mind drifted to England, wondering if he was all right, which was a really stupid question. Of course England was all right, he used to be a pirate. But then that led his mind right back to four people who might not be all right.

"Shit!" He jumped up, checking if he still had his gun, and went for the door. He knew there was magic involved, be he wasn't quite sure how far that magic would stretch. Riddled with bullets, one of them might actually die. "Argh. Damn it, guys." He considered trying to call England, but decided against it, because if they were sneaking around, he could give them away.

He was _so_ going to shoot Prussia the next time he saw him. America hadn't been in a good mood lately, and he was perfectly willing to shoot someone, because when upset, he had a tendency to get incredibly trigger happy.

Which more often than not worked in his favor. So now it was time to go shoot some terrorists, find his husband, and rescue his stupid army friends before they stupidly got themselves killed and it would be _all_ _his fault_ (America was trying very hard to ignore the gibbering panic in one corner of his mind that was labeled 'People I Extremely Care About'). It would be just like a videogame. Right.

Oh, if they were dead before he got to them he was going to resurrect them and then kill them himself. He might even reserve that right to kill them himself if they were alive for the heinous crime of giving their country gray hairs.

* * *

><p>All four of them sneezed at the same time.<p>

"Someone is talking about you," England commented mildly.

"Probably Alfred, the ass," Nick said. "Sounds like something he would do."

"Oh, so horrible. Making us sneeze by talking about us," Alex said in a sarcastic tone.

"Are we anywhere _near_ that meeting room yet?" Jack asked. "We've been walking long enough, why is this building so big?"

"We're close," England said. "Just around this corner and a few more hallways."

"And would you guys stop talking? We're supposed to be sneaking about, and we can't if you two are giving a running commentary," Theo hissed. "We're going to get…" They rounded the corner and came face to face with one of the gunman, "caught."

"Well, well…" This one talked, at least. "Sneaking about with firearms? That's pretty illegal, isn't it?"

"Was that supposed to be funny?" Nick asked. "Because it _really_ wasn't."

"Suppose you've come here looking for survivors. Well, they're all gone. Moved, to the central area, like you are going to be very soon." He leveled his gun at them and spoke into his walkie talkie, "I've got five in the hallway we just cleared. I need back up."

"You have _no_ idea what you're dealing with," England said, laughing coldly. It made chills go down their spines and Theo was certain that he'd only left out the 'human' at the end because of them. "Now… among your hostages, is there a blond haired man with blue eyes and glasses?" He flashed a smile and leveled his own gun, and it was pretty certain who would win if they started shooting.

"You mean the pretty one that fought back? You won't be seeing much more of him." Theo felt a sickening jolt in his stomach at that, and he felt Nick shift beside him.

"You-you…bastard!" he snarled, and Theo grabbed his hand, because he'd only make it _worse_. Alex and Jack's fingers were twitching, wanting to go for their guns, or maybe just strangle the man outright. He'd-he'd…

England was chuckling. He was _laughing_.

"He is going to be so angry when he wakes up."

"…Maybe you aren't getting my drift," the man said, frowning. "I _killed_ him."

"Oh yes, I understand that perfectly. But he's going to be positively livid when he wakes up," England said nonchalantly.

"Oh, great, our only hope in this mess has gone insane at the prospect of Alfred being dead." But Nick's voice wavered, and it wasn't as sarcastic as it should have been. It was flat.

"Don't be so dramatic. I haven't gone insane and Alfred isn't dead," England said, rolling his eyes. There was an audible click behind them. England turned briefly. "See, not dead."

They all froze, and as one collective group, turned their heads. Alfred was standing behind them, gun leveled at the terrorist.

* * *

><p>Notes: Okay. Trenches and mustard gas are from World War I, if you were wondering. Sic Semper Tyrannis is Latin for 'thus always to tyrants', and was yelled by John Wilkes Booth after he shot Abraham Lincoln. It also happens to be the state motto for Virginia and was attributed to Brutus after he killed Caesar. The Thousand Yard Stare was attributed to soldier who got Shell Shock or what is now known as Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). A Beretta is the favored handgun of one British superspy 007, aka James Bond, though I'm not quite sure if it uses clipsmags or not. *not a gun expert* And in my headcanon, a Nation can practically survive anything, the only way they can be killed is if all their people stop believing in them (which is why Prussia is still around-the modern day Teutonic Order makes sure of that) or if they deliberately commit suicide (perhaps like Rome and Germania, dying on each other blades, which is assisted suicide, if you think about it.) And man were my notes long this time.


	8. Chapter 8

Hello, all! And welcome back to Brothers Under the Sun. This is the chapter you've all been waiting for. XD Have fun!

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Hetalia, but I own my boys.

* * *

><p>"I-I killed you. <em>I shot you in the head!<em>"

"Yeah, well, stuff like that doesn't, y'know, _take_ on me," he said. You could see easily that one side of his head was matted thick with blood, hair standing on end. "And I don't appreciate being shot in the head."

"Oh, no. It makes him upset," England continued almost happily. "And when he's upset, he gets _particularly_ trigger happy. Drives the UN into fits. One time when Francis groped me they counted 45 bullet holes in the wall."

Nick turned and craned his head to look at Alfred's gun. "God, do you have bottomless magazines in that gun?"

"I reload it!" Alfred said rather defensively. " Sometimes."

"Hey, question for you," Jack said, giving him a fake innocent look at the man. "Where _are_ those reinforcements?"

"Probably already taken out. I met up with Prussia, Austria and Hungary. Hungary had her frying pan of doom out," Alfred said, snickering. "I think this guy is the only one left." He pointed at the guy with his gun, who promptly fainted.

"Wow, he wasn't much of a terrorist, was he?" Jack said, poking his prone body with his toe.

"Would you stop _doing_ that?" Theo snapped. "What if he wakes up?"

"Shouldn't we like…I don't know…shoot him?" Nick asked, casually leveling his gun.

"Don't worry about it. The UN Police will pick him up. Anyway, he hit his head, I don't think he's getting up anytime soon," Alex said, watching the blood bloom from the back of the man's head. "Serves the bastard right, for shooting Alfred in the…" And they all turned around, because they realized _Alfred was still standing there._

"Uh…" Alfred was rubbing the back of his head sheepishly with one hand at the sudden attention, having lowered his gun. "Hi?" They all as one launched each other at him and gave him a group hug as well as they could. Then Nick punched him. "Ow, what the hell?"

"And that's for lying to us, damn it!" Nick said triumphantly. "I've wanted to do that for a while now."

Alfred rubbed his arm where Nick punched him. "Yeah, well, I should kill you for making me worry and giving your country gray hairs. That's treason, y'know."

"I wouldn't worry, darling," England said with a smile, wandering over and leaning up into Alfred's face. "Gray would make you look distinguished."

"I thought that gray was more your thing, babe," he said, before kissing him.

"Awwww, how sweet," Nick said, snickering. Theo and Alex both smacked him.

"Well, at least we don't have worry about more terrorists, if they're all taken care of," Jack said optimistically. Alfred pulled away from England.

"Uh, actually, I don't know if that actually happened. I lied," Alfred said sheepishly.

"So, you mean…those reinforcements…are actually coming," Alex said. Alfred slowly nodded as footsteps sounded around the corner.

"Shit!" Nick said as they started to run. "Damn it, Alfred! What are you, a compulsive liar or something?"

"Am not! It seemed like a smart thing to do!" he said defensively. England hit him on the shoulder, hard. "Ow, stop it, Artie!"

"That's what you always say! Especially about the robots fighting global warming!"

"Robots fighting global warming?" Alex asked as he slid around a corner.

"It would be _awesome!_" Alfred said, grinning.

"Look, an elevator!" Jack said, stopping and pressing the down button and they all pressed themselves in it. It started to travel down, and they all breathed a sigh of relief. Until the elevator shuddered to a halt and the lights flickered.

"Ahhh! We're going to die!"

"SHUT UP, JACK!" the three of them, joined by Alfred, shouted. England looked amused.

"I take it you used to do that a lot."

"Oh, all the time. And I think they cut the power to the elevator, guys," Alfred said.

"Oh, thank you for that riveting update. Now we're trapped in an elevator while terrorists run around the UN. Whose stupid idea was this?" Nick said, getting up from where he'd fallen. They all slowly turned to look at Jack.

"Well, it seemed like a good idea at the time!" he said defensively. Alex sank to the floor and buried his head in his hands.

"I'm surrounded by idiots. Idiots, I tell you."

"Well, we might as well sit down and relax, because we aren't going anywhere anytime soon," Theo said, sliding down the elevator wall and sitting. Everybody joined him and it was silent… For all of two minutes.

"Okay, this is boring and _incredibly_ awkward," Nick said quite suddenly, throwing up his hands. "I say we do something."

"Like what?" Alfred asked. And as one, Nick, Jack and Alex looked at him with evil looks on their faces. He paled.

"Let's play Twenty Questions," Nick said.

"Only we're asking the questions…" Jack said.

"And Alfred's answering," Alex finished.

Theo sighed. "Would you three stop being so dramatic? It's not that big of a deal."

"But it is," Alfred said, surprising them all. "I'll answer anything you want me to. I owe it to you." He looked certifiably miserable right now.

"You know, Alfred," Nick said, looking a bit guilty. "We _do_ understand why you lied to us."

"Yeah, I mean, we're mad, but not _that_ mad. You don't have to answer anything you don't want," Jack added.

"You don't understand," he said, shaking his head and looking down at the steel floor. "All I could think about after I woke up from being shot in the head is that those terrorists might have killed one of you, or all of you. And I would never get the chance to tell you _anything_ about me, and that I wasted that second chance tell my best friends the truth. That scared me." He looked up and his eyes behind his glasses were feverishly bright.

"_Alfred…_" Theo breathed, and any anger he might have had fell away. England leaned over, pressing himself into Alfred's side, resting his head on his shoulder, in a show of comfort.

"I-you…" Everybody else seemed at a loss for words faced with that, but Nick wasn't.

"Alfred, you ass, don't cry. We're all fine and right here, and we're _not going anywhere, damn it,_" he said. "I'll say it once and I'm pretty sure one of us will have to say it again, no matter how freaky or weird this gets, we're here for the long haul."

"Guys, you realize I'm not even human, right?"

"Yeah, and what's that's supposed to mean?" Jack snapped. "Just because you're not human in a _traditional_ sense doesn't mean anything."

"It's more of a behavioral thing. You act-mostly-like a human, so you are, technically, a human. And to be completely honest, Alfred, you weren't human when we first met you, and you're still not human. The only difference is that we know now. Why the hell should it make any difference?" Alex added.

"You got anything to throw in, Theo?" Nick asked.

"I agree with everything that they just said. And if you don't stop being a complete idiot, I'm going to have to use the glare on you."

"Guys…" He smiled at them, a tiny smile, before reaching up and rubbing the tears gathering at the corner of his eyes away with his sleeve. "Thanks. Really. But…I'll still answer anything. I owe it to you."

"What does the F. stand for in your name?" Alex shouted suddenly.

"Wasn't that first thing you asked him when we all first met?" Jack asked, amused.

"Yes, it's been bothering me. You said you had no idea. But you must have _some_ idea. It's your _name_."

"That one I told the truth on. I decided when I was signing something one day to stick it in. Your guess is as good as mine," Alfred said, shrugging. "Could be freedom, could be fucking… have no clue."

"Could be Francis," England said with a straight face. Alfred turned and looked at him with wide eyes.

"Babe, no! Don't _joke_ about things like that!" he said, huffing. "Yeah, like my name is gonna be the same as the serial molester."

"The 'serial molester'? Oh god, I've got to hear this story," Nick said, laughing. England opened his mouth. Alfred covered it with one hand.

"Don't you dare_,_ I'm still getting over the bottom thing."

"Which reminds me…are you always a bottom?" Nick asked slyly. Alfred flushed a bright, bright red.

"No," England answered for him, a smug grin on his face. "But we do switch it up. And what he doesn't want to tell you is that France took his virginity. Along with the rest of the known world."

"It's not like I'm _special_ or something," he grumbled, face still red. "I can't think of one person he hasn't screwed. Except for you guys."

"Are you guys like…all gay or something?" Jack asked. "Because seriously, it's looking that way."

"It's more like, we don't put as much weight on sexual identity. It's doesn't matter to us the gender of the person," Alfred said, his face finally going to something that's more of a normal color. "Humans are the ones that get all riled up about that."

"Which is interesting, making me wonder what other differences there are between the ideology of humans and nations. It would make an excellent thesis!" Everybody rolled their eyes.

"Moving on from Alex being philosophical-"

"What's new?" Alfred interjected.

"I get the next question," Theo continued, right over Alfred. "Do you actually need those glasses to see?"

"Of _course_ I need Texas to see, don't be stupid," he said, tapping the frame.

"…Texas. Your glasses…are _Texas,_" Alex said flatly.

"Does that mean Florida is-?" Nick started.

"NICK!_" _Theo, Alex and Jack all shouted at once. Alfred laughed.

"No, it's not. And you don't get to know what is. But Nantucket is this, if you're curious," he said, flicking the hair that always stuck out from his head. "But don't _ever_ touch it!"

"Uh…okay," Jack said, deciding he'd ask why at a later date. "So what happens if someone takes your glasses-er, Texas, from you?"

"It feels really, really weird. I only let a few people touch them. Artie can."

"Would you stop calling me that? I have a proper name," England said, disgruntled.

"And you guys can, too. Just for future reference. I don't mind."

"We already _have_. I don't know how many times someone had to pull them off of you when you were asleep, just so you didn't mangle them. Now I wonder if it's even possible to mangle them," Theo said.

"It is, when I fell off a horse. I had to get them straightened," he said, wincing at the memory.

"…You know, if it had been anybody else taking those glasses off of you, you probably would have woken up and shot them in the face for touching Texas," England said. Alfred just shrugged with a tinge of pink coming back to his face.

"What can I say, they're my best friends." The four of them smiled at him, and he smiled back, and every suddenly wasn't quite so awkward.

"You _fell_ off a horse?" Jack asked, almost incredulous. Alfred didn't seem like the type to fall off anything.

"Yep. It was a long time ago, though. Probably around the 1870's. I was out west at the time."

"He was a cowboy," England supplied. "What did they call you?"

"Whiplash Jones. 'Cuz I could shoot so fast that other people got whiplash just watchin' the bullet whizz by," he said, in a perfect Texan-Southern drawl.

"Don't talk like that!" England said, face bright red. Alfred laughed.

"It turns him on," he said in a stage whisper. "Shall I git my Stetson out, babe?"

"I have a loaded gun, you git. Just _keep_ talking, I dare you." Nick snickered evilly and Alex smacked him on the arm.

"Would you _stop_ that, Nick? You'd think that you were your shoe size instead of your age," he said. Theo rolled his eyes and sighed at their antics and Jack leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees, looking contemplative.

"Oh no, Jack looks like he's thinking. This could be terrible," Alex said.

"Shut it, Alex. I was just… Alfred, what did you do to get us food that one time when supply lines fell and we didn't have any for two weeks?"

"It…it doesn't matter," he said, looking away at the gray brushed metal of the elevator. Nick frowned and reached over to grab him by the shoulder and shake him.

"Don't you _dare_ say it doesn't matter! We would have _starved_ if you hadn't done whatever you did to get that food."

"I'm not particularly proud of it. I absolutely _hate_ pulling rank," he said, making a face.

"You…pulled rank? But you were a priv- You aren't a private," Alex said, answering his own question.

"Of course he's not a private," England, snorting. "Do you still do that? Have the army office register you as a private?"

"Well, it's the only way I get to serve on the front line, Arthur! You know how paranoid my government is. And you know I've made it a point to serve in every single war since the French and Indian War."

"The French and Indian War…that was before the Revolution!" Theo said.

"So, your point? I mean, we _did_ fight in it. Anyway, it was the only way I could see my brother again."

"If I remember correctly, you were only physically fifteen when you went to fight in that war. I had a fit," England said, glaring at him. Alfred shrugged.

"I didn't care. The army let me in."

"Because back then, the army recruiters didn't actually care what age you were," he said, still glaring.

"Okay, Theo. History lesson, now," Nick said.

"The French and Indian War was the North American part of the Seven Year's War. At the end, Canada was ceded to Great Britain, in the Treaty of Paris of 1763."

"History lesson?" Alfred asked, confused.

"I'm a history professor. I taught for the State University of California. So I know all this stuff."

"He has been _invaluable_ in figuring all this shit out," Jack said, wrapping an arm around Theo.

"Do you _mind_?"

"Wait a minute. I don't know much history but… wasn't he your _colony?"_ Nick asked, pointing from England to Alfred, a sly grin appearing on his face that meant he was thinking something particularly perverted.

"Ugh, please don't remind me. I like to keep my memories of him young and innocent intact," England said, groaning and burying his face in one hand.

"He exaggerates. I've never been that innocent. I've wanted him since the early 1700s," Alfred said, looking over and smirking at him.

"No! Don't say that! Tralalala, I'm not listening to you!"

Nick burst out laughing, doubling over. Alex rolled his eyes and Jack snickered. Theo realized he now had not three immature friends to watch over, but _five_. He wondered if he could pretend not to know them, even in the elevator.

* * *

><p>Notes: Not many notes this time. But, there is a lot of Hetalia referenced stuff in here. A Stetson is a type of cowboy hat that is very popular and actually very expensive nowadays. I'm not quite sure if they were around back then, but just assume America has bought a new one. Or something. o_o The French and Indian War was indeed the North American part of the Seven Year's War. And the French and the Indians were fighting on the same side, confusingly enough. The colonists and the British were on the other side. And yes, that is when Canada was ceded to England. I put the date of the Treaty of Paris because there are two, and the more well-known one is the one that ended the Revolutionary War. And this war is actually a big part of the cause for the Revolution, since the British officers refused to the treat the colonist troops with the same respect that they treated their own troops, and Canada wasn't Protestant, like the colonies, it was French Catholic. It made a lot of colonists nervous, especially when England said they could practice Catholicism freely. ...Okay, maybe there were a lot of notes this time. *took AP US History*<p> 


	9. Chapter 9

Hi, sorry this took me so long to get out. I had it all written out, and kept forgetting to give it to my beta. o_o Sorry!

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Hetalia, but I do own my boys.

* * *

><p>"<em>And…gin!" America shouted triumphantly, throwing his last card away. The other four groaned and threw down their cards.<em>

"_Must you win at everything, Alfred?" Theo asked._

"_Don't complain Theo, you had only two cards left," snapped Jack, who had fifteen cards; they were currently spread all over the table._

"_You're the one who decided to pick up the throw away pile, so you don't complain either," Alex said, yawning._

"_Am I the only one wondering why we're not playing Texas Hold'em or something?" Nick demanded._

"_Do _you_ have anything to wager?" Alex asked._

"_Well, no…"_

"_Exactly."_

"_So… What are you guys going to do after the war?" America asked suddenly. He'd never really asked them, but he knew that his tour was coming to an end, and soon the plane would be there to get him. And then all of this would be over. He'd probably never see them again._

"_After the war? What makes you think they'll be an after? It's been going on for this long, maybe it'll go on forever and we'll be old men fighting here," Nick said, laughing._

"_The war _won't _go on forever." He'd make sure of it. He couldn't continue this anymore, he wanted to go home and be able to go see England without bombs trying to kill him _and_ England, and he wanted all his people to come home and he wanted peace. "Now, tell me, what are you guys going to do after the war?"_

"_Well, I already told you when we first met. I'm going to be a philosopher. Probably work for some big university."_

"_Sounds like reading about a bunch of dead Greeks," Nick said, snorting. Alex glared at him. "Me, on the other hand, I've been looking at all this old architecture. You know, the cathedrals, the castles… well, the ones that haven't been destroyed. Maybe I might want to do something like that."_

"_I don't know what I'm going to do. Probably go to college like Alex and get a degree. Not in philosophy, though. I'll figure something out to do. I always do," Theo said._

"_I love how you three all aspire to something great. Me, I'm going to find the first job I can find. I don't have very much money to go to college, and I'd rather just work, anyway," Jack said proudly. "So, what about you, Alfred?"_

"_What?" he asked, completely startled._

"_What are you going to do after the war, Alfred?" Jack asked him again. America's eyes widened. He hadn't…he didn't think they'd ask about him. But they would, wouldn't they?_

_He waved vaguely. "Oh, things. I'm sure that somehow I'll get by."_

"_See, Alfred and I, we're going to strike out, be drifters and Jack-of-All-Trades and we're going to be awesome!" Jack said, grinning. Alex rolled his eyes._

"_All right then, you Jack-of-All-Trades. New round of gin rummy. You're dealing because you had the most cards."_

"_Damn it."_

_America watched them, with a sad smile on his face, wondering exactly how much time he had left with them._

* * *

><p>"Gin!" Nick shouted. "Aha! I won!" Alfred had pulled cards out of his jacket pocket, and suddenly they had something to do in the elevator while they waited.<p>

"So, how long do you think that they're going to keep us here?" Theo asked.

"Well, we've obviously found out that they're _not_ good terrorists, or they'd have cut the lines and we'd be… er, we might be dead. So now all we have to do is wait for the UN Police Force to come and rescue us," Jack said. Alfred and England started laughing.

"We'll be waiting for a long time if we wait for the Police Force to come clean this up. Don't worry, somebody will try to use the elevator and figure out we're stuck in here. And then they'll call the mechanics to fix it," Alfred said with a grin. "This isn't the first time something like this has happened."

"Jeez, they really need to get better elevators, then," Nick said, looking around the elevator. "I wonder if they'd let me design it…"

"Oh, you would. You would," Alex said, sighing. "He's talking about architecture again, somebody stop him!"

"Okay! Alfred, question," Jack said with a sly smirk usually seen on Nick.

"Huh, what?"

Jack leaned up and reached out his hand, "Why can't we touch Nantucket?" Alfred ducked under his hand, covering that little flyaway hair with his own hand.

"Don't do that, damn it!" he said, going bright red. England was laughing at him.

"If you must know, it's his erogenous zone," England said, still chuckling. "All Nations have them."

"You guys, _stop laughing_!" Alfred said, flustered as they all started to laugh. "It's not funny! Do you know how often someone tries to _fix_ it?"

"I'm sorry, Alfred, I really am," Jack stuttered, still laughing. "I promise I won't violate you anymore."

"But _hair_? Hair's dead, and doesn't have _any_ nerve endings!" Alex said, boggling at that tiny little hair that Alfred had just warily uncovered.

"I don't know how it works. It just does," he said, still blushing fiercely.

"I should keep you four around. I have never seen him blush so much in one day. Usually he's shameless," England said, still snickering and looking slyly over at Alfred.

"Can somebody get me out of this elevator? Please?" asked, begging the ceiling.

"No such luck, Alfred," Theo said, smiling. "You are stuck with us. Possibly forever, though not in the elevator." Alfred sighed, but threw them a blinding smile nonetheless to show them that he was just joking.

"Speaking of that, what are you going to do after this?"

"Didn't you ask us that when we were playing gin rummy the _last_ time, too?" Jack asked, amused.

"You also didn't give us a straight answer. Running a country is not 'things'," Alex said. "I seriously thought you would end up as a hobo with Jack or something." Jack rolled his eyes.

"I was joking when I was talking about the drifter thing, Alex."

"Hey, I did other stuff than run a country! And it practically runs itself nowadays," he said. "I mean, I spent a lot of time with Arthur… went to Woodstock…"

"You _went_ to Woodstock?" Nick asked. "You were a hippie?"

"Not entirely…" Alfred said sheepishly just as England snorted and said, "Yes."

"I can actually see you as a hippie, though…" Theo said. "You were always did strike me as the type of 'make peace not war', even though we were _in_ a war."

"I can't even remember most of it." Alfred snickered. "It's sort of a haze of weed and Jack Daniels." Nick laughed.

"Quick, we're talking about illegal substances, Theo, block your ears!" Theo just shook his head and didn't dignify that comment with a response.

"You know, Alfred…you always struck me as a bit of a golden boy."

"Jack, that's what I called him when I first met him," Nick told him. "We all know that I was _dead_ wrong now, though."

"Obviously you're not a good judge of character," Alex said, snorting. "And technically, everybody was doing it back then."

"Except for us," Jack said.

"I've always kind of wanted to…" Nick trailed off. "It seems fun."

"I have some stashed back at my house," Alfred said. They all turned to look at him. "I never said I _stopped_ smoking it occasionally. My brother's _Canada_, what do you expect?"

"I remember one time he called me up high long-distance. That was an interesting conversation," England said. "Also considering I was in a meeting at the time."

"How was I supposed to know that you were in a meeting? There's a five hour time difference! And my brother made the brownies extra strong, but they looked _so_ delicious…"

"…I don't _know_ you people," Theo said finally.

"But Theo, you're _trapped in an elevator with us!"_ Nick said, snickering.

"He has a point, Theo," Alex said. "I mean, if you didn't know us, how would you be trapped in an elevator playing card games with us? Its simple cause and eff-"

"Anyway, you four never answered my question," Alfred said, cutting off Alex before he could get going. "What are you going to do?"

"Alfred, don't be stupid. We're sticking with you. That's what all this is about to begin with. We were looking for you, and somehow we found the greatest government conspiracy _ever._ Pretty damn good for 90 year old men in 19 year old bodies if I do say so myself," Nick said with a grin.

Anyway, what else do we have now? Technically, we're probably considered legally dead," Alex said.

"Shit, that's right. How do we get all our stuff out of our houses and get all of our savings?" Jack said.

"I used my credit cards like this! Damn it!" Nick said, just realizing what he could have possibly done.

"You've all just thought about that?" Theo asked. "I've been thinking about it since we did it. It's going to look really suspicious if four young men bought something on an old man's credit card."

"Don't worry, once we get out of here I'll call the FBI and have everything fixed. You don't mind, if you're sticking with me, if I have them collect all of your stuff and move it to my plantation in Virginia, do you?"

"Plantation?" Nick said. "How old is it? How many acres? How big is the house? Is it all authentic? Obviously you need to have electricity and plumbing but-"

"Nick, stop. You're as bad as Alex when it comes to architecture and old, musty houses," Jack said. "And that's fine, Alfred."

"If we don't want to stay there in the long run we'll figure something out later," Theo said. "Right now we kind of need to get out of the elevator."

"Speaking of that, darling, does that mean that you're not coming back to London with me?" England asked. Alfred rolled his eyes and threw an arm around England, pulling him close.

"'Course I am, babe. I'm on vacation. The FBI should be able to handle _moving_ stuff."

"Hopefully," Nick said rather optimistically. "So does that mean we're going to London?"

"I guess so," Alfred said. "You do have enough room, Arthur. Please let them stay, babe." The look he gave England could best be described as a puppy dog with big blue eyes and glasses.

"Yes, yes I do," he replied, sighing. "They can stay, but only because they're your friends, Alfred."

"Don't worry, we won't bother you two," Theo said. "I've never been to London before. The history there is _amazing!_"

"So's the architecture!"

"And there's quite a lot of philosophical history there! Locke, Hobbes and Bacon to name a few of the greater ones."

"Oh God, save me," Jack said, burying his face in his hands.

"You can go on the London Eye?" Alfred suggested. Jack looked up and stared at him.

"You _know_ they're going to drag me everywhere. Like they did here. I think I now know more about The Hague than people that _live_ here."

"I did wonder why you didn't just fling yourself out of a window to escape us. At least Alex wasn't waxing poetically about philosophy."

"No, he was too busy being angry that we were here at all, because he didn't believe in fairies. Non-believer," Jack said, looking at Alex.

"You are _never_ going to let that one go, are you?"

"Well, you should know that every time someone says they don't believe in fairies, a fairy dies," England said very seriously.

Jack glared at Alex. "Fairy killer."

"Thank you for that. Now I'm going to be known as the fairy killer instead of the non-believer."

"…That's from Peter Pan. That's not even true, Jack," Alfred said. He poked England in the side. "Babe, stop antagonizing my friends. They can't tell when you're joking."

"But it was so easy to do," England said with a wry smile. "And they're getting on my nerves, being in such an enclosed space. Of course, you're getting on my nerves too."

"Arthur, I always get on your nerves. Especially when I use your scones as paperweights."

"You're using my scones as paperweights again?"

"But they're so hard, you could chip a tooth. They're perfect for holding papers down, or for feeding to pigeons in D.C. to keep the pigeon population down. They crap all over the nice statues," Alfred said. England hit him.

"I made you those scones myself!"

"Babe, I'm sorry, but you can't cook. You never _could_ cook. You're the reason why my taste buds are permanently destroyed."

"The reason why your taste buds are permanently destroyed is because you eat hamburgers!"

"Hamburgers are good! And it's not like I don't make them myself. Because I do. It's better than blood pudding and sheep's stomach and whatever else you eat."

"Blood pudding is a traditional English dish. And sheep's stomach is haggis and that's Scotland's food, not mine!"

"And you drink all sorts of crazy tea. Like you have to have breakfast tea for breakfast and earl grey at other times, and you can't forget tea and crumpets, whatever crumpets are. I could never figure it out."

"They're like biscuits."

"Which are cookies."

"No, they're biscuits. Cookies are chocolate chip biscuits."

"See, that makes no sense!"

"Do you guys _always_ do this?" Jack asked, interrupting their pseudo argument on food.

"Oh, you're still there. I kinda forgot," Alfred said, sheepish.

"See, aren't we all glad we never got married?" Nick said cheerfully. "I sure as hell am. Now… who's up for another round of gin rummy?"

* * *

><p>Notes: Oh jeez, where do I start? Gin rummey is a type of card game, and Texas Hold'em is also, more commonly known as five card poker, I believe. And yes, I believe Nantucket is America's erogenous zone. And that America was a hippie. He just seems the type. Jack Daniels is a type of American whiskey. And technically, weed isn't illegal in the Netherlands, so they can talk about smoking it there. And Canada is known for having a lot of weed and stoners. For some reason, I don't really understand. And yes, in my headcanon America's house is a plantation in Virginia, the first colony established in 1609. The London Eye is that big ferris wheel you always see, blood pudding really is made out of blood, and haggis is the National Dish of Scotland. Peter Pan does indeed have that line, and if anybody's ever read the book they'll know about the section in which the narrator asks the reader to believe in fairies to stop Tinkerbell from dying. And the cookie-biscuit argument is something that my beta (who is English) and I had once. The philosophers Alex mention are John Locke (the 'Two Treatise on Government' and 'life, liberty and right to property' (Jefferson changed it in the Declaration) guy), Thomas Hobbes (the guy who said everybody was evil) and Francis Bacon (...not quite sure what he did). *keels over, taking a breath* Is that it? Am I done?<p> 


	10. Chapter 10

Hello all, to the tenth chapter! I...am kind of apprehensive about posting this. I went back and forth on whether I should rewrite or not, but...I decided that what the hell, what's the worst that could happen? You could all hate it?

**Disclaimer: **I do not own hetalia, but I own my boys.

* * *

><p>"Twenty-two bottles of beer on the wall, twenty-two bottles of beer…"<p>

"Jack, would you kindly shut the hell up with the song?" Alex asked. "How long have we been in the elevator anyway?"

"I think only about seven hours," Alfred said, checking his phone.

"Seven _hours?_" Nick yelled. "God, service in the UN is total shit!"

"Take one down, pass it around, 21 bottles of beer on the wall!"

"JACK, SHUT UP!" they all yelled, except for England, who was leaning up against Alfred's arm dozing off and cracked open one eye.

"How about you _all_ shut up, I'm trying to get some sleep here!"

"Yeah, the old man needs his beauty rest, guys," Alfred said, snickering. England gave him a look. "Go back to sleep, babe."

"Stupid ungrateful brat…" he murmured, snuggling up closer to Alfred as his breathing evened out.

"Tire him out last night, Alfred?" Nick asked, snickering. Alfred blushed bright red and reached across, smacking Nick in the arm. "Ow!" He then got smacked again by Theo, who shushed him and pointed at England. "Why is everybody hitting me all of a sudden?" he asked himself, but his tone was considerably lower.

"You still have blood in your hair," Jack said quietly. Alfred reached up his free arm to feel at his hair and sighed.

"I also still have the hole. I'll wash it off in a sink or something when we get out of here." Theo rolled his eyes at that.

"Here." He leaned forward and started to clean the cracked, dried blood off of his hair with gentle fingers, avoiding Nantucket. "You look a bit like an idiot with it, anyway."

"I'm sure," he said with a bit of a laugh.

"So what's it like, dying?" Alex asked.

"You would ask that, Alex. It's like losing consciousness, actually. But that could just be me. Because I'm going to wake up from it later. It depends on what you die from, too. This was quick."

"So what's _not_ quick?" Nick asked.

"Well, the first time I actually died-died, was during the French and Indian War, when the French captured me. They tried to execute me by firing squad but they had horrible aim. They finally just decided to use the old method of stabbing me to death with their bayonets." The four of them winced.

"Okay, that sounds very painful. And very horrifying," Jack said, his face wrinkled in disgust.

Alfred shrugged a bit. "It's sort of a fact of life when you're a Nation. You know that some time, you're going to die horribly. It just happens."

"That doesn't mean we have to like it, Alfred," Theo said quietly, still methodically picking dried blood from his hair.

"Like you four have any room to talk. Humans die and they _don't come back to life."_ There was dead silence in the lift. None of them could move, none of them could even _breathe_. Except for Alfred, who was breathing erratically, avoiding all their eyes.

And of course, the moment Theo had been about to say anything, to address that raw grief that had found its way into Alfred's voice, the elevator chose to shudder back into operation, lights flickering. England jolted awake at the movement.

"Finally," he said in relief. "I wondered if we would be stuck in this cursed lift forever." He turned and looked at Alfred. "So what happened when I was…" he trailed off, looking into Alfred's eyes. "Darling?"

The elevator jolted to a stop and the door pinged open, where France (dressed properly, this time) and Canada stood, looking rather triumphant. "Found you guys, even though it took forever. Everything's safe now, as the UN Police Force _finally_ got here," Canada said. Alfred scrambled up and out of the elevator, trying to push past him but Canada grabbed his wrist. "Al?"

"Let _go_ of me, Matthew, damn it!" he snarled, pulling his wrist easily away from him, and stalked off.

"_Mon dieu_, what did you _do_ to him?" France asked England, as Canada watched him stalk with a look of pure disbelief. "Finally tell him of your bondage fetish?"

"No, you stupid Frog!" England yelled, going over to him and kicking him hard in the shin. "And anyway, he already knows about that. And I was asleep until the lift started moving."

"He called me 'Matthew!' He only does that when he's really upset." All three Nations turned to look at the four humans standing up in the elevator.

"What did you do to him?" England demanded. The four of them looked at each other, and all as one ran after Alfred.

* * *

><p><em>America tried to tell himself it was all right. But it wasn't working, and wouldn't work until he had seen him all right. The stupid idiot just had to go and get himself shot, didn't he? And make all of them worry to death.<em>

"_He's probably fine," Alex said, reading a book. But America knew that he hadn't turned a page for about ten minutes. Jack fidgeted with his glove, twisting it around and then balling it up and smoothing it back out. It was rather hypnotic to watch him do over and over again._

"_Yeah, he was still talking when we brought him in. It was only in his shoulder. The nurses should be able to dig it out easily and patch him up. They got him in surprisingly quick." Because America had once again gone and pulled strings, with his hands still dripping with blood. None of the people waiting had any _serious_ injuries; a lot of them were just there to get out of drilling._

"_I say we go and shoot a couple of Nazis to get back at them," Nick said, gripping his gun even though they were in the waiting room of a makeshift army hospital._

"_Nick…" Alex warned._

"_They shot _Theo_, damn it. Theodore Wilson, one of the greatest, most tolerant men I have ever known. He didn't even sign up for this damn war, they drafted him! He'd probably much rather be at home, contributing towards peace than here, shooting Nazis! And he gets shot for all his troubles. Damn it, this war is _crazy."

"_Will it ever end? Will we ever be able to go home?" Jack asked. Alex shrugged._

"_I don't know. This war…it could go on forever."_

"_We could all get shot and die between now and then. If not, we'll probably be fighting as old men," Nick said, half joking, but a part of him sounded like he was starting to despair._

"_It will not go on forever," America snapped at them. He had just about _enough _of this. "You guys will go home, and do all sorts of awesome things, and none of you are going to die!" But they were empty words, because he couldn't stop them from dying any more than he could stop the sun from rising or stop the war. And he would live. He would always live._

"_But…what about you, Alfred?" Jack asked. America recoiled at bit, just as a nurse came out into the hall._

"_You can see him now," she said to them curtly, and walked off. They all forgot about America's shouting and went inside, crowding around the bed._

"_Guys," Theo said, in a long suffering voice. "I'm fine."_

"_He can still give us that tone of voice. That means he's okay!" Jack said with a grin. They crowded around him, asking him questions, but America hung back, looking at the four of them, alive._

_He knew that if that bullet had been about an inch down, Theo would have died before they could get him here. It could happen to any of them at any time._

_That was the moment when he stopped seeing them alive, and started seeing them dead. _

* * *

><p>"Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, <em>fuck!<em>" America yelled to an empty hallway. It didn't help in the slightest, so he dodged into the nearest bathroom, locking the door behind him. Of all the stupid…

They just had to go and talk about death, didn't they?

He walked over the sink, taking off Texas and setting it on the shelf in front of the mirror, before turning on the faucets and sticking his head under the lukewarm spray to wash the blood from his hair. The water turned pink against the white porcelain of the sink, and America felt like bashing his head against it until _he_ was dead again, so he didn't have to deal with the thoughts for a little while.

He didn't want to think of them dead. He didn't even want to _consider_ it. He had enough graves to visit as it was.

This was the reason why Nations didn't make friends with mortals. America thought he had learned this lesson long ago, but here he was. He grabbed one of the towels and started to rub his hair dry.

The horrible thing was it didn't matter that they were young again, couldn't age, and maybe couldn't even die.

America would always see them dead.

It didn't matter from what, shot in the war, dead from old age, or any one of the nameless horrors that cropped up in his nightmares every so often over the last 70 years. There were so many ways for humans to die… And they all ended at Arlington with a 21 gun salute and a folded up flag.

It was enough to drive him _mad_. Which was not a very good state for a Nation to be in. All you had to do was look at Russia and everything that he's done to know that. He'd _seen_ Lithuania's scars. He'd told America that he'd been there, the moment that Russia had snapped like a little twig and started firing on his own people.

To be a Nation, you had to be a little bit crazy in respect to normal humans; it was just the way it worked. But there was a line between that and absolutely insane. A lot of Nations flirted with it every now and then, like England when he had been a pirate. Russia had danced across it that Sunday in 1905.

America knew he had come close during the Cold War, when during the Red Scare his own government had decided to blacklist him for his homosexuality, and paranoia had been so widespread it started to affect him in reverse. It was only a matter of time before he snapped. And then Russia had got involved.

He remembered that meeting, when as he had been leaving Russia had grabbed him, pulling him close and whispering in his ear: '_Become one with me, comrade. Let me take you down into madness, where everything is wonderful.'_

It was actually because of that one comment he snapped back to his senses. It was probably why he became so much of a hippie in the late sixties and seventies, to offset the fact that he had almost gone crazy because of communism and the Cold War, just like Russia had because of a revolution.

A part of him, actually, was incredibly afraid that he was still on that line, that he'd only managed to delay it for a bit. He'd tried to stay away from the latest War on Terror, spending a lot of time away from D.C. The world did not need him to snap, not from that and not from…_this_.

And all _this_ started because of four ordinary humans.

America combed his fingers through his hair, making it lie normally, in a nervous gesture. He looked at his reflection, trying to banish the all-consuming fear in his eyes. "The United States of America isn't afraid of anything." Liar, _liar!_ He was afraid to lose them, afraid of going insane, afraid of going insane because of losing them.

And it just wasn't dying. No, now that he thought more about it, what if he _finally _did something wrong and they rejected him. What the hell would he do then? Break into a million tiny pieces.

He turned away from the mirror, leaning on the sink, putting one hand to his face. He had to stop thinking. America could hear England's voice in his head clearly: '_Alfred, darling, your problem is that you think too much and don't talk about it enough. You draw your own ridiculous conclusions and think that they're the truth. Do me a bloody favor and _talk_ to people, once in a while, without pretending that you're an idiot who doesn't even know where Japan is.'_

But he couldn't tell them all this. They wouldn't understand, not really. They were his best friends, but they were also _humans_. Plus, admitting you were possibly on the brink of insanity is usually a deal breaker in most friendships. And he didn't _want_ to tell them. He was already different enough without having to heap 'possibly insane' on that pile.

There was a knock on the door and America groaned. "Wait a minute," he called, and turned off the water, slipping Texas back onto his face. When he was certain he looked presentable, he went and opened the door. And wished he hadn't, because they were on the other side of the door. He slammed it shut in their faces and locked it. The door knob rattled under his hand as they tried it, only to find it was locked.

"Alfred, Alfred!" He turned his back to the door and sank down to the floor, knees to his chest, pretending he couldn't hear them call his name. Maybe if he did, they would go away and take the fear with them.

* * *

><p><strong>Notes<strong>: Okay, yes. Not very much in this chapter by way of references. America referenced Arlington Cemetery, where a lot of veterans are buried, the 21 gun salute, where 21 guns are fired off to salute a veteran at their funeral, and a folded up flag, which is the flag that drapes the coffin, which is then folded up in a special way and usually given to the widow or closes family member. *for all the non-US-ers out there* Bloody Sunday is also referenced, as Sunday, January 22, 1905, being the thing that set off the Russian Revolution of 1905. It's also the strip. But you probably knew that. It's my headcanon that America _was_ blacklisted for being a homosexual and went a liiiiiittle crazy during the Red Scare because, I don't know, his government turned on him? And before you start to try to kill me, this will all be resolved next chapter, I promise. My boys are going to have to smack some sense into him, which should be hilariously fun to watch. :)


	11. Chapter 11

Hello, all and here's the 11th chapter! It's going to be ending soon, I can tell. We're winding down. And this is the chapter where everything gets resolved, I promise. Writer's honor.

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Hetalia, but I do own my boys.

* * *

><p>"Alfred. <em>Alfred<em>! Ugh, you idiot!" Nick said as he kicked the door. "What is _wrong_ with you? We just want to help!"

"Obviously he's upset about the death thing," Alex said.

"Thank you, Captain Obvious. Now _contribute_ something!" Jack said, smacking him on the arm. "Be…philosophical or something!"

"A philosopher is not a psychologist, Jack! I can't just say a couple of magic words and he'll tell us what's wrong. Anyway, psychologists have doctorates. I just have a master's. Which is practically _useless_ in a situation like this!" he said, throwing up his hands.

"Would you two stop discussing Alex's schooling and help me figure out how to get this door open?" Nick asked them, glaring at the both of them. "I'm not leaving Alfred. _Never._ Not after all of this."

"Well, neither am I!" Jack said hotly.

"And I'm not either," Alex added. Nick looked over at Theo when he didn't immediately chime in.

"Theo?"

Theo looked at them and then looked at the door, and he suddenly, in a flash of insight, knew what to do. He stepped over to the door, pressing his hands against it, not going for the doorknob.

"America, 'Meri, _open the door._" It didn't sound quite as strange as it did before, now that they knew. "We're your friends, through and through, and we don't care if you're a Nation or anthropomorphic personification or whatever you are. We've been _over_ this. There isn't very much you could do to scare us off at this point. Now open this damn door and tell us what the _hell_ is going through your head right now."

There was a flurry of movement on the other side of the door, the click of a lock, and the door opened to reveal America, looking rather bedraggled.

"Then you'd better come in and sit down." They ended up seated on the tile floor in the bathroom, looking at America, who was studiously looking at everywhere but them. "Just…just let me talk, okay?"

"Anything, Meri," Theo said. He actually rather liked that nickname, and thought it suited America rather well. He finally looked at him when he said that, giving him a questioning look. Theo just smiled at him and motioned him to start talking.

"I don't want to tell you, I've never wanted to tell you this. …I'll always see you dead. Always, ever since Theo got shot, I'll always look at you and see you dead. It's enough to drive me mad, and I don't _want_ to be mad, not like Russia. Russia snapped on Bloody Sunday and killed his own people. You all think we're a little bit crazy but there's a line. A line where Nations who cross it go absolutely insane. Russia crossed it that day. I almost crossed it, during the fifties, when my own _government_ blacklisted me for homosexuality and everybody was paranoid about the Red Scare and it started backlashing on me and everybody was scared, Arthur was scared for me. I came _so _close. Then Russia…Russia snapped me out of it, ironically. He said… I should follow him into madness, because it was wonderful. That's when I came to my senses, and spent the rest of the sixties and seventies as a hippie. And I've spent all the time since then terrified that I'm still there, still at that line, and all it will take is one thing to tip me over. I was frightened of the War on Terror, that it would be that one thing, but now I know what it is. It's your deaths, the thing I'm scared of the most, even though I _know_ you can't truly die anymore. Or that I'll do something that will finally be the thing that you guys can't stand, you'll be gone and I'll _shatter_ into a million pieces. And I shouldn't be afraid, because I'm the United States of _fucking_ America, I'm the hero, and I'm not afraid of anything, but I am, damn it. I'm afraid I'm going to go insane, and going to be everything that I'm not, and I won't be able to stop it, and I'm afraid for you, afraid for you to die, even though _that_ doesn't make any fucking sense anymore, and-"

"America!" Nick shouted, grabbing his shoulders, jolting him out of his rant.

"…You called me 'America'…" he said, blinking. "And I thought I told you to let me talk."

"I think you're done talking when you start to repeat things," Alex said dryly.

"And if Theo gets to call you 'Meri, and America, so do I," Nick said, amused.

"'Meri is an _excellent_ nickname," Jack said with a grin, throwing an arm around America's shoulders.

"Why _are_ you calling me America?" he asked, looking completely lost. "You've known since you got here, and you've been calling me 'Alfred'."

"And finally my degree comes into use here," Alex said. "It's who and _what_ you are, isn't it? And we accept you for that. I think I can vouch for all of us and say, that we've been in a bit of denial when it comes to that." The other three nodded. "Calling you Alfred was safe, because it's how we were used to viewing you, not as America."

"Prussia said that because we were close to you, we could use your human name," Theo said. He paused for a moment, gathering how he could explain this. "I figured, and I guess we all figured, that since we've always called you by your human name, that because we were close to you we should use your real name."

"Names are important," Jack said, nodding. "They're a person's identity."

"And seriously, America? You've been hiding your true identity from us for years and pretending to be Alfred F. Jones, the human. I think it's time we finally knew America, the Nation," Nick said, sliding over to sit down next to him, opposite Jack.

America looked absolutely speechless for a minute. Then he lowered his head, bangs covering his upper face and glasses catching the light so they couldn't see his eyes, only the twin tear tracts that traveled down his cheeks.

Theo was pretty sure that this moment would be imprinted into his mind until whenever he died, possibly forever.

And then it was over, America pulling his head up and wiping away the tears, grinning like an idiot.

"Did you guys, like…practice that speech before hand?" he asked. "Because it really sounded like it."

"It's all Theo's fault. He started it, by calling you America," Nick pointed out. Theo sighed and rolled his eyes good-naturedly.

"I still like 'Meri better," Jack said. "And anyway, it won't make us sound like crazy people in a large crowd."

"That is always a danger, sounding like a complete crazy person," Alex said. "You would know, wouldn't you, Jack?"

"Non-believer."

"Would you just _drop_ that?"

"And speaking of that, we're not done with you yet. Now…repeat after me," Nick said seriously. "I, Alfred F. Jones…"

He looked at Nick suspiciously, but repeated it. "I, Alfred F. Jones…"

"The United States of America…"

"The United States of America…"

"Am not crazy, nor will ever go crazy."

"Am not…what!" America asked. Jack poked him in the shoulder.

"Say it!"

"…Am not crazy, nor will ever go crazy…" he trailed off.

"And his friends will never let him go crazy."

"And his friends will never let him go crazy…"

"Nor will they ever leave him for some incredibly stupid reason."

"Nor will they ever leave him for some incredibly stupid reason."

"Now, say that whenever you start doubting," Nick said, waving a finger at him. "Your imagination likes to run away with you, doesn't it?"

"Arthur does say I think too much and don't talk enough," America said sheepishly, rubbing the back of his head.

"Well, he's right. _Really,_ America," Alex said, giving him a look of extreme annoyance. "You think you would know that we wouldn't _leave_ you. And death is pretty much out of the question at this point."

"You can thank your husband's fairies for that," Jack said cheerfully.

Then Nick poked him in the shoulder. "And did you _really_ get blacklisted?"

"Yes, I did. It was terrible. I couldn't get out of the country, got practically fired from my own government, lost my plane, lost a lot of rights…" America said. "The fact that I couldn't go see Arthur and that my government would _actually_ think that because I loved a man made me a Commie was what rubbed the most, though."

"I was always afraid I would get caught and blacklisted," Nick said, sighing. "And then I wouldn't be able to get a job, and I'd be ruined."

"We would have taken you in, Nick," Theo said. "Any one of us. Because I know, at least to me, that you are much more important than my reputation." Alex and Jack nodded.

"I would have made sure you had _something_, y'know. Because I would have seen your name on the list," America said. "Well, until they 'fired' me."

"Thanks, guys," Nick said, grinning again. "You're the best straight and whatever the hell America is friends a bisexual guy could have." They all gave him flat looks. "What? I thought it was funny!"

"Speaking of that…I won the bet, didn't I?" America asked. "Doesn't that mean I get to decide what happens to you three?" Jack decided, from the rather wicked look America was sporting it was time to slide back over with Theo and Alex.

"I don't like that look on your face…" Alex said cautiously.

"So, Nick, since you were the subject of the bet... what shall we do to them?" he asked, looking over at Nick, who returned the grin. It was then that Theo remembered exactly why Nick and America got along so well-they both had rather twisted senses of humor.

He was definitely not looking forward to this at all.

* * *

><p>Notes: See, all fixed up! and I still have no idea what Nick and America are going to do to those three. Whatever it is, it'll be good and probably hilarious. It's not in next chapter, no, as far as I know. Thinking up a good darelosing prize takes hard work and time. Please review!


	12. Chapter 12

Okay, my readers. This is it. The final chapter. At least, of this story. You're probably asking 'what's going to happen with the payback from the bet' and everything. Well...that's what sequels are for. XD So please, enjoy this long, last chapter.

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Hetalia, but I own my boys.

* * *

><p>When they finally got out of the bathroom, they ran into England in the adjacent hallway.<p>

"There you are," he said in relief, passing right by them and going to America, leaning up and kissing him gently. "You're all right, aren't you?"

"I'm fine. I promise, I'm fine," he said, wrapping his arms around his waist. They started to whisper together and the four of them decided that they should give the two of them some privacy. They wandered off some way down the hallway.

"So now what?" Alex asked. Theo thought for a moment, and then wondered why the hell he was thinking, and why Alex was asking, when it was obvious.

"We stick by him for the rest of our lives," Theo said.

"You know, Alex, for someone so smart you sure do ask some stupid questions," Nick observed. Alex glared at him.

"I was _just_ asking. And anyway, someone has to ask the obvious."

"We have to make sure that America doesn't actually manage to drive himself crazy, like he already is," Jack said. They all turned to look at England and America. America looked sheepish when England looked positively livid and worried at the same time. He hit him and then kissed him deeply in quick succession.

"Good luck with that. It's not easy, I tell you. He drives _me_ crazy sometimes," Canada said from somewhere behind them. They all jumped and turned again, to see Canada and France standing there.

"Well, there are four of us, so we can easily overpower him with sheer force of will," Alex said.

"We're also not going to give up on him anytime soon for anything as stupid as that," Theo said.

Canada and France exchanged glances.

"What?" Nick asked irritably, looking between the two of them. "Didn't expect four _humans_ to be able to understand?"

Canada nudged France, hard, with his elbow. "Ow! _Mathieu…_"

"Francis," he hissed, glaring at him over his wire frame glasses. "You know what to do."

"Ah, yes… I must…apologize for what happened in D.C. and calling you 'humans'."

"Though I think that warning shot was enough to scare you off," Canada said wryly.

"Who even _fired_ that?" Jack asked. "I thought it was coming from the tree…"

"It _was_ coming from the tree. And who do you _think_ fired it?" Canada asked them, and glanced over at his brother, who was still getting berated by England.

"…America fired it? He was in that tree that entire time we were there?" Alex asked.

Nick snorted. "Figures he would be there for that."

"Not like he could have revealed himself tous, though," Theo said. "We still had no idea what was going on."

"And even worse, he looked like, a nineteen year old," Jack said.

"He always looks like that," Nick said. "We have been over this, right?"

"But we didn't _know_ that, and we still were ninety-year old men!"

"…We still are ninety-year old men," Nick said, incredibly amused. "We just look like nineteen year olds now."

"You _know_ what I mean!" Jack yelled, exasperated and waving his hands in the air. Alex started to snicker. "And stop laughing, Alex. You wouldn't have believed him if he had decided to show himself then, you _non-believer._"

"Are you _ever_ going to drop that? I'm a philosopher! I have _reasonable_ doubt, damn it!"

"…Are they always like this?" France asked Theo.

"Who? I don't see anybody that I know right now, other than America. So you must be mistaken, because I don't have three friends who bicker like ten year olds," Theo said, glaring at them in quick succession.

"…Theo, you know you love us. Without us, your life would be incredibly boring," Nick said, grinning. Jack threw an arm around Theo's shoulders, matching Nick's mischievous grin.

"Anyway, Theo, who would you glare at?"

'My _history_ students," Theo said, ducking under Jack's arm. "Though they were always more mature than you three."

"I hate to burst your bubble, but you are retired," Alex added. "You did remember that, or have you _finally_ gone senile?"

"Are you seriously asking that?" Nick asked. "Really, Alex. _Really,_" he gestured down at himself.

"It's a completely viable question. Maybe fairy magic doesn't work on senility."

"_Non-believer_. Fairy magic works on _everything!_ Like people, illnesses, trees, rocks, blades of grass, little woodland creatures-"

"SHUT UP, JACK!"

"_Mon dieu,_ they must be friends of _Ameriqué._ They are giving me a migraine," France said, pressing at his temples.

"If it would make you feel better, the snarky good-looking black haired one is actually bisexual, so-" France was over there in less than five seconds. "I didn't even _finish the sentence!"_

"Ah, _mon cher_," France said, leaning into Nick's personal space and taking his hand. "I didn't seem to catch your name."

"Am I being hit on in _broad daylight?"_

"It's the UN," Canada offered. "Nobody cares. There is illicit homosexual sex in the third floor broom closet."

"Well, at least that's good-Wait a minute. How did you know I was _bisexual?_" Nick shouted, shaking off France's hand. "And sorry, I don't date skeevy Frenchman. Really, you need to shave, and be less flashy. I already _saw_ it all and I'm not particularly impressed."

"Oh, it was in your FBI file," Canada said, as France tried to stave off the heart failure from being so unceremoniously rejected. "I saw it after the entire tree debacle."

"It's in my FBI file? _America!_" Nick shouted. Jack peered up at the ceiling.

"…Do I dare ask?" Alex said, looking at him.

"I'm seeing if that shout broke any of the light bulbs. They are rather fragile things." That earned him a glare from Nick and a sigh of resignation from Theo.

"What, what? What's wrong?" America said, appearing from across the hall.

"The FBI knows I'm bisexual?"

"Well, yeah, it was in your file," America said. "Why?"

"How the hell do they know that!"

"Nick, it's the FBI. It's not that difficult to figure out," Alex said. "It's not an acronym of Federal Bureau of Investigation for nothing."

"…Thank you for your input, Captain Obvious!"

"What Alex said is basically it, Nick. If it makes you feel any better, they know all of your favorite bands, the size of shampoo you buy the most, your birthmarks, and the type of cereal that you like to eat and whether it's the type that gets the fun prizes or not," America said cheerfully. "I think that Captain Crunch always has the best prizes, but I like the crunch berries too."

"I like Captain Crunch!" Jack said. "Better than Lucky Charms."

"Lucky Charms is the best cereal on the planet," Alex said quite seriously. "Don't knock the Lucky Charms."

"…The spokesperson for it is a leprechaun, Alex! What the hell happened to reasonable doubt?" Jack asked him, poking him in the arm.

"The little marshmallows are so good, though!" he said defensively. "I love the marshmallows."

"I like Frosted Mini Wheats, personally," Theo put in. "The frosted side is really good once you get it soggy with milk."

"You _would_ like Frosted Mini Wheats, Theo," Jack said, snorting. "So…sensible."

"Hey, don't know the Frosted Mini Wheats. They're good for you, kind of like Cheerios. I like Cheerios," America said.

"Yeah, but Cheerios have honey in them, and you can get the ones frosted with yogurt and stuff…"

"So, wait a minute. Are you saying that I'm the last person to know that _everybody_ knows I'm bisexual?" Nick asked. The four of them nodded. "Figures that would happen to me; I was always so afraid of getting found out that now _everybody_ knows. Anyway, don't be stupid. Everybody knows that Coco Puffs are the best goddamn cereal on the planet. C'mon, they turn the _milk_ chocolate!"

"…Arthur," Canada said, turning to England who was staring at them. "Welcome to hell."

"I don't know _what_ you're talking about, lad. I live across the Atlantic. You share a border with Alfred," England said, raising one rather large eyebrow at him before saying, "To be honest I've always preferred Weetabix, but that's a British cereal. Though there's something to be said for Frosted Flakes in the morning with a cup of Earl Grey."

"The _tiger,_ babe? Nobody even _likes_ that tiger!"

"Everybody likes the rabbit, though. I've always wanted to smack the kids who won't give the poor rabbit some Trix," Nick said.

"Technically, it wouldn't exactly be good for rabbits, feeding them Trix. What if kids started to feed their pet rabbits Trix?" Alex asked.

"_Details,_ Alex! And anyway, it's an anthropomorphic rabbit! Are you _discriminating_ against anthropomorphic peoples?"

"No! Who do we even know who's-" He looked at America and England. "Never mind! Forget I said that! And _anyway_, Lucky never got his Lucky Charms. He didn't even get the limited edition little hourglass ones! It's a cereal thing. The spokesperson never gets to eat the cereal!"

"What about the toucan? He always got his Fruit Loops," Jack pointed out.

"…Fruit Loops? Aren't they the incredibly fruity little circles?" England asked. "Like Cheerios, only for the people with an addiction for sugar who like to rot their teeth out, _Alfred?_"

"Hey, don't knock the Fruit Loops. I like the Fruit Loops."

"I like Fruit Loops too," Theo said.

"But…but…_Frosted Mini Wheats_," Jack said. "What happened to healthy?"

"Sometimes you have to eat healthy, and sometimes you just have to rot your teeth out," Theo said, with the air of a wise man.

"…I can't believe I'm hearing this," Canada said, standing next to France. "…Francis, are you even _listening_ to this?"

"…I cannot believe that I, the country of _l'amour, _would be turned down so rudely! Except by _Angleterre_, he had no taste to begin with."

"_Merde."_

* * *

><p>"And furthermore…!"<p>

Nick leaned over in his seat to whisper in America's ear, "Is it always this boring?" He gestured around at the meeting, where the Nations of the world (plus for slightly-ordinary humans) were gathered.

"Always," America answered quietly, pausing in his doodling on his notes. "People go on and on as if this stuff actually means something."

"But it doesn't?" Theo asked, from the other side of Nick.

"Of course it doesn't. Why do you think I don't try? I have fun coming up with incredibly crazy ideas, though." He laughed quietly. "Our governments do this to get us out of their hair for a certain amount of time."

"But that's… But you're their _country_," Alex said. "Their country, damn it. You would think that would have certain… I don't know… _connotations?_ Philosophically, you're what the government stands for."

"That's not exactly true," he said quietly. "I'm not an ideal or the government… People always think that. I'm the land, pure and simple. From the Appalachians to the Rockies, to the plains of Alaska, to the badlands of Texas, it's all _me_. The land, the people… that's what I am. I was here before the government, before the stereotypes, and as long as people continue to believe in _me,_ I'll still be here."

"…We'll always believe in you, 'Meri," Nick said, quite seriously. "We meant what we said. All of us. We'll always be here." He glanced over at them, and it struck Theo just how _blue_ America's eyes were. He'd never noticed, before, but they shined behind his glasses with some sort of light. And now that he looked, he saw that every other Nation had that. They always did say that eyes were the windows to the soul.

"You guys might regret that someday," he said, but he was smiling. "Anyway, don't worry, this meeting's almost over, and then we're leaving and I'm taking my vacation whether they like it or not."

"_Our_ vacation, you mean," Theo said. "We're coming with."

"And you're paying for our tickets, since we technically don't have any money," Nick said.

"I promise that the FBI is working on switching your accounts to mine, and moving your stuff. When we get back to my house, it'll all be there," America said, turning back to his notes and pretending to write.

"And then…" Alex trailed off.

"And then our lives are never boring again," Nick said. "_Obviously_, Alex."

"Aren't we glad we went looking for him?" Jack said, grinning. Nick snorted.

"You didn't want to climb up all those stairs. You would have given up and gone home, if we had left it up to you."

"I would _not_!"

"Must you two be so loud?" Theo said, glaring at them. "Quiet down."

"And anyway, Nick, you just like to sit at home and watch re-runs of _All in the Family_," Alex said, grinning.

"…Shut up, Alex, just…shut up."

"What have I said about us being _respectable_ veterans?" The three of them looked at Theo, and all started to laugh, stifling it behind their hands. They were right back at the beginning again, and a lot of things were the same…

He looked over at America, doodling on England's notes as England glared at him and tried to shoo him off.

And yet…everything was different.

* * *

><p>"…<em>I can't believe you're leaving…" Jack said, trailing off as he looked at America, bags packed and beside him, waiting for his transport. "Why are you leaving?"<em>

"_My tour is over," America said, shrugging. "At least here it is." He couldn't tell them the truth, the real truth, and it hurt. It would probably always hurt that the last memory he had of them were them waving goodbye._

"_You'll keep in touch, won't you, Alfred?" Theo asked. "We want to know how you're doing, where you've been transferred to, everything."_

"_Sure," he lied easily. "I'll even come visit you after the war is over."_

"_This war…it's never going to be over," Alex said. America frowned at him._

"_Of course it's going to be over. It's not going to last forever. No war can last forever."_

"_Alfred…"_

"_No, Alex. It will be over. _I'll_ make sure of it." He would, too. No matter what it took. The war was almost over in Europe, anyway. Then he would have to fight with Japan, in the Pacific, but at least _they_ would be okay. "None of you are allowed to die between now and then."_

"_Of course we're not going to die," Theo said, gesturing at his left shoulder. "And I'll even be extra careful."_

"…_Nick, you're awfully quiet," America said, looking at him. He sniffed. "Are you…crying?"_

"_Not crying, damn it! I have hay fever!" Nick said, sniffing a bit more. America sighed and hugged him tightly._

"…_You better not die either," Nick said quietly into his shoulder. "Sometimes I think that with all the crazy stuff you do, that you have a death wish."_

"_I promise I won't die either." He couldn't truly die, anyway, but if gave them piece of mind, then he would tell them that. At that moment, he heard the whirl of the helicopter blades and felt the wind start to tug at his clothes._

"_They sent you a helicopter?" Nick asked, amused. "I thought you'd get shipped out in a truck with a bunch of other people."_

"_Yeah, well…" The door slid open and a man in army fatigues poked his head out, motioning to America. America broke away from Nick, grabbing his bags in one hand and his dog tags in another. "I'll never take them off! _Ever!_" he shouted over the din of the helicopter and the blowing wind._

"_Just go, Alfred!" Alex shouted. "See you later!"_

"_Because this isn't goodbye!" Theo said. "We'll see each other again soon!" He gave them a sad, sad smile and dashed over to the copter, ducking in as the man closed the door and he came face to face with a Secret Serviceman._

"_Mr. Jones, sir," he said, saluting and handing America a bag, which he knew contained his Air Force uniform and his bomber jacket. He dug out his bomber jacket and slipped it on, feeling the comforting weight of the leather on him. And now, he wasn't Private Alfred F. Jones anymore. He was the United States of America, and he was going to win this goddamn war against that _stupid_ Kraut. _

"_Where are we going?" he asked calmly, settling back down on a seat, flicking his eyes out the window to see the tiny black specks that were his friends fading away. America wondered if they were still waving._

"_The President and the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom are waiting for you in London, along with Mr. Kirkland, sir. We'll be there in a few hours."_

Finally,_ he thought. He could see England again; see how much he was hurt, and hug him, and kiss him, until that stiff upper lip just faded away. He could see his boss again; figure out what the hell was going on in this war and how they could win it, preferably in the next year or so._

_His hand slid up and gripped at the dog tags that were bouncing and clinking on his chest from the rumble of the engine._

_And he, America, could never see them again._

_Fin_

**Final Notes:** Wheetabix is a English healthy cereal, kind of like Cheerios. I would hope everybody knows what the other types of cereal were in this chapter. That's about it, for notes, other than yes, helicopters were invented in the 1920's, just not in widespread mass production until 1943. And now, thanks to my beta and rp partner, Jess, who's England I based my England on for characterization_, _and Kiran, who let me rant about this and read it even though she's never finished watching Hetalia. And thanks to all of you, who read, reviewed, alerted, and favorited my story. I worked very hard on this, and I'm glad you all liked it._  
><em>


End file.
